Zweirugi plies his trade

[Modrageball]

This quest originally began on Nov 22, 2013.

"Zweirugi" Sword-Vashna (Draconics)
Level 59
Golem, Mystic & Void & Time & Fate & Sonic & Life
HP- 20,850
MP- 20,850
STR- 834 (12)
AGI- 834 (12)
CON- 834 (12)
MIN- 834 (12)
SPI- 834 (12)
XP- 0
XP Required- 8,320,000, Holy Imperial Seal of Glory
Gold- 0
Fame- 12
(Stats above counting Fame abilities)

ABILITIES AND SUCH

Weapons-
*Sword of Vashna- (Weapon, Sword, Mystic & Void & Glory & Fate & Destruction & Life & Spatial, 400,000,000 Gold) +400,000 Melee Attack, +400,000 Magical Attack, +400,000 to all stats, May Heal, May deal MP Damage, 150% Critical, 150% Dodge, 250% To Hit, 150% Resilience, 75% inflicts any two minor or moderate negative status effect (but not sub-status effect except Paralyzed: Temporal Stasis, Imparied: Mute, Charm: Impressed, Voidstruck: Turned To Shadow, Manablasted: Mystic Seal, Stat Drain: AGI Drain, Stat Drain: SPI Drain, Stat Drain: MAG Drain, Stat Drain: MIN Drain, Manablasted: Mystic Leak, Fatigued: Elderly, Antimatter: Obliterated, or Stat Drain: ELM Drain), 2% inflicts Instant Death, Smitten, or Petrified: Time Stop, Wielder has a 20% chance of being able to change all targets of any single action of a lower-level individual that is below Level 40 each time such an individual conducts an action provided wielder's last action killed any entity that is not an ally of wielder, +10% Critical, +10% Resilience, +5% Dodge, +10% To Hit, Wielder's per-item Melee Attack bonus cap becomes two times the relevant stat, 25% Mystic Resistance, 25% Chaos Resistance, 25% Light Resistance, 20% Physical Resistance, 20% Technology Resistance, 20% Earth Resistance, 20% Magic Resistance, Charm Immunity, Stat Drain Immunity, Wounded Immunity, Paralyzed Immunity, Manablasted Immunity, Poison Immunity, Disease Immunity, Hexed Immunity, +750,000 HP, Wielder's 'Melee Attack' and 'Magical Attack' actions may remove one buff from a source below Level 60 on each of their targets, Wielder's 'Melee Attack' actions may destroy all of the non-unique spells worth under 100,000,000 Gold equipped by their targets, Wielder's 'Attack With Finesse' actions may deal full Damage to targets in the back row and may target individuals below Level 80 who are in different battlespaces, Wielder gains +15 Fame, Wielder is immune to debuffs from sources below Level 60, Sources below Level 60 cannot force wielder to leave battle or change rows, Wielder ignores the Defense of individuals below Level 60, Wielder ignores the Defense of non-unique individuals below Level 80, Wielder ignores the Resistances, Immunities, and Reflections of individuals below Level 60, Wielder is Immune to individuals below Level 40, Wielder gains +20,000 to its turn-order-determining stat sum for turn-order-determining purposes and +400,000 Magical Attack as an uncapped effect if wielder has no allies and at least one of wielder's opponents is a Boss, Wielder gains 2 hits against 1 against Bosses, Wielder's 'Melee Attack' actions and 'Attack with Finesse' actions may use Spirit or Agility as their Prime Attribute, Wielder's 'Melee Attack' actions may become solely Glory element, Wielder's 'Magical Attack' actions scan their targets' stats, Wielder's Defense cannot be pierced by individuals below Level 60, Wielder's opponents below Level 60 cannot summon, Wielder counts as having an additional spell of every base subtype equipped, Wielder counts as having an additional spell of every subtype that wielder has at least one spell equipped from equipped, All non-unique Spells equipped by wielder that are worth under 100,000,000 Gold may, at wielder's discretion, become solely the subtype Wizard Magic, the subtype Combat Arts, the subtype Time Magic, the subtype Dark Magic, the subtype Combat Arts, the subtype Sword Arts, the subtype Astral Magic, the subtype Transmutation, the subtype Anarchomancy, the subtype Leadership, the subtype Ritual Magic, the subtype Divination, or the subtype Enchantment at the start of every round, targets of wielder's offensive actions that have a higher SPI than wielder obtain a debuff that causes their actions that do not have a Natural MP cost of 0 to cost 2,000,000 MP in addition to their other costs that stacks 5 times, Wielder's opponents may not leave battle without wielder's permission if below Level 60, Individuals killed by wielder have their corpses disappear if they are below Level 80 and wielder desires such, Individuals below Level 80 cannot prevent wielder from resurrecting individuals, Individiuals killed by wielder cannot be resurrected by sources below Level 80, Wielder counts as possessing 5 additional abilities from each base class excluding 'Prophet of the Brightest Heavens', 'Prophet of the Darkest Abysses', 'Chronicler of Eternity', and 'Hand of Valcont', Wielder counts as possessing 5 additional abilities from the class 'Radiant Hierophant', Wielder may, up to 12 times per thread as an action that is delayed 0 to 25 rounds, replicate the effect of any ability performable by a monster on the enemy list that is below Level 60, below caster's Level, and (normally fightable for drops or that is the entity 'Clock Stopper's Apprentice', 'Grandmaster', 'Clock Stopper', or 'Lesser Star Eater'), doing so as though said monster is performing said ability, Wielder may, if Level 71 or greater, spend an action to transform into the entity 'Grandmaster', Wielder may, if Level 99 or greater, spend an action to transform into the entity 'Lesser Star-Eater', Wielder's allies gain +10,000 to all stats and +100,000 HP and MP as a non-stacking bonus, Wielder must be Level 40 or greater, Wielder's name must include 'Vashna', Wielder may, in the shop thread, conver this item into the sub-character Sword-Vashna for a month, Cannot conduct absorbs, Generally requires reforging at the Forge of Aeons to upgrade in an RP thread
Alternate Whipform (Superior)- This item may, at the beginning of any round, gain '+1,000 points to wielder's unmodified stats as a non-stacking bonus', to become a Weaponx2, and to have its subtype change to Whip, Affects Weapons, Quest Enchantment
Alternate Swordform (Fast)- This item may, at the beginning of any round, gain '2 hits against 1', to become a Weaponx2, and to have its subtype change to Sword, Affects Weapons, Quest Enchantment
Alternate Axeform (Grandcleaving)- This item may, at the beginning of any round, to become a Weaponx1, to gain the effect 'wielder's per-item Melee Attack cap becomes two times the relevant stat', and to have its subtype change to Axe, Affects Weapons, Quest Enchantment
Alternate Soulform (Mageblood)- This item may, at the beginning of any round, have its subtype change to Soul and gain the effect 'Wielder dies if wielder reaches 0 MP; wielder may convert HP Damage dealt to wielder by sources below Level 60 into MP Damage', Affects Weapons, Quest Enchantment
Alternate Soulform (Ironsoul)- This item may, at the beginning of any round, have its subtype change to Soul and gain the effect 'Wielder dies if wielder reaches 0 HP; wielder may convert MP Damage dealt to wielder by sources below Level 60 into HP Damage', Affects Weapons, Quest Enchantment
Unbreakable- This item cannot be Broken or destroyed except by the most exceptional measures, This treatment does not prevent pets or summons it is applied to from being killed, This item cannot be stolen outside of Official Quests and Player Quests, This does not count as a Mystic Treatment for number of Mystic Treatments that can be applied to this item if this item is unique, Affects any type of possession, Mystic Treatment
Experimental Weapons Upgrade I- This item provides +1,000 to MIN, This item gains '40% may inflict Manablasted, This item provides +1% Dodge, Experimental Upgrade
Ruinous Sword of Nokhret (Imitation)- (Weapon, Sword, Destruction & Darkness & Fire & Evil & Physical, 140,000,000 Gold) +140,000 Melee Attack, +140,000 STR, +140,000 SPI, 215% To Hit, 115% Critical, 100% inflicts any 3 minor or moderate negative status effects, Wearer’s per-item Melee Attack bonus cap becomes 2x the relevant stat, Wielder's Prime Attribute for 'Melee Attack', 'Attack with Finesse', and 'Melee Overdrive' actions may become Spirit, Whenever wielder conducts an offensive action, wielder chooses a an entity from the Enemy List that is normally fightable for drops that is of a Level equal to or lower than wielder's Level (to a max of 60) and applies one stacked instance of every debuff that enemy could naturally apply (with the same application conditionals as the debuffs on said enemy, such as 'all Robots targeted are afflicted with' or 'targets below Level 20 are afflicted with') without referencing sources other than its own stat sheet, Multiple instances of this item may not be wielded at the same time, If wielder does not possess at least one Villain or Prophet of the Darkest Abysses ability, wielder obtains a debuff that sets all of its possessor's stats to -1 at the start of each of wielder's actions, with said debuff infliction counting as coming from a Level 99 source, May only be wielded by individuals of Level 40 or greater
Experimental Weapons Upgrade I- This item provides +1,000 to STR, This item gains '40% may inflict Antimatter, This item provides +1% Dodge, Experimental Upgrade
*Meru'Kemsei: The Bee-Cutting Knife (Melee Version)- (Weapon, Throwing Weapon, Physical & War, 580,000 Gold) +978 Melee Attack, +700 to all stats, 17% Critical, 25% Critical against Insects, 23% Critical against Plants, 5% creates the item Exquisitely-Crafted Wooden Bee Cut-Out from each Plant dealt the final killing blow by this weapon, Deals Drain with hits that kill targets, This item's owner may, as an action, switch it for Meru'Kemsei: The Bee-Cutting Knife (Thrown Version); the two versions of this item are enhanced differently and count differently for effects that are applied to them

Armor-
Idolic Wargod's Armor- (Armor, Heavy Armor, War, 220,000,000 Gold) +220,000 Defense, +2,100,000 HP as a non-stacking bonus, +190,000 STR, +190,000 CON, +190,000 Melee Attack, 140% Resilience and 140% Critical if wearer is Level 60 or greater, 40% War Resistance, 40% Destruction Resistance, Divine Magic, War Magic, and Catastrophe Magic spells cost wearer 300,000 less MP to cast, 160% Resilience, Wearer's allies and wearer may elect to receive worshipper benefits from wearer if they are not already receiving such benefits, Said benefits include +50 Melee Attack, +50 STR, +50 CON, and +25 AGI per Level of worshipper, to a max of Level 80, Said benefits only take effect if none of wearer's opponents are capable of granting worshipper benefits, Wearer may spend an action to resurrect one of its worshippers if said worshipper was killed by a source below Level 80 and no individual capable of granting worshipper benefits objects, Wearer must be Level 40 or greater

Accessories-
Amulet of the Wholly Balanced Self- (Accessory, Light & Void & Darkness, 200,000,000 Gold) +200,000 SPI, Wielder is afflicted with Elevated, Favored, and Favored: Anointed at the start of every round, Wielder cannot obtain debuffs or negative status effects from sources below Level 60, Wielder is cured of all minor negative status effects at the start of each round, Wielder is Immune to individual below Level 60 if wielder is Level 60 or greater and has all equal base stats, Wielder must be Level 40 or greater, Wielder (as an RP effect) feels a sense of calm, balance, and oneness with the universe
Huntmaster's Bandolier- (Accessory, Container, Air & Physical, 1,250,000 Gold) +1,000 Ranged Attack, +1,400 AGI, +800 to wearer's turn-order-determining stat sum for determining turn order, but not bonus actions, on the first turn, 12% Critical, 12% Dodge, 111% to Hit, 12% Resilience, grants either an additional Weapon slot that can contain a Throwing Weapon or two additional spell slots that can each contain a Thief Arts spell or three additional consumable slots that can each contain a Lethal Item, Wearer counts the first three turns of battle as the first turn of battle for purposes of spell and ability effects, gives +250 to all stats for each piece of equipment with 'Huntmaster' in its name, to a max of +1,250, Humans drop an additional 100 Gold at the end of battle if they otherwise do drop Gold, The Enhancement 'Unbreakable' may be applied to owner's items with the word 'Huntmaster' in their name for free Unbreakable- This item cannot be Broken or destroyed except by the most exceptional measures, This treatment does not prevent pets or summons it is applied to from being killed, This item cannot be stolen outside of Official Quests and Player Quests, This does not count as a Mystic Treatment for number of Mystic Treatments that can be applied to this item if this item is unique, Affects any type of possession, Mystic Treatment
Lord Owl's Iron-Rimmed Glasses- (Accessory, Eyewear, Darkness & War & Destruction & Time, 7,500,000 Gold) +7,500 Melee Attack, +7,500 Defense, Wearer's 'Ranged Attack' actions deal 750 AGI Damage, +7,500 to all stats while wielder is in a Chronogeomantic Zone of Night, 150% To Hit while wielder is in a Chronogeomantic Zone of Night, Wielder's 'Ranged Attack' actions incorporate wielder's Melee Attack bonus instead of wielder's Ranged Attack bonus, cannot miss targets below Level 40, deal full Damage to targets in the back row, and may target individuals below Level 40 who are in different battlespaces who are not 20 or more Levels greater than its wielder
Elder Rune of Unbound Strength- (Accessory, Other: Elder Symbol, Magic & Physical, 15,110,000 Gold) +15,000 STR, Wielder's STR cap increases by 4,000
Symbol of the Ouroboros- (Accessory, Other: Elder Symbol, Spatial & Time, 200,000,000 Gold) +2,000,000 HP as a non-stacking bonus, +2,000,000 MP as a non-stacking bonus, Wielder regereates 200,000 HP and 200,000 MP at the start of each round, Sources below Level 60 may not prevent wielder from healing or regerneating HP or MP, Wielder may target individuals below Level 60 who are in different battlespace so long as no individual of Level 90 or greater who is either in the battlespace wielder is in or the battlespace being targeted objects, Wielder must be Level 40 or greater

Consumables-
Pack of Cigarettes- (Consumable, Lethal Item, Fire, 20 Charges, 500 Gold) +5% to Hit, 15% cures Confusion, 5% inflicts Poison, 5% inflicts Discomfort, lasts 5 rounds, does not stack
Camel-Headed Bastard Cigarettes- (Consumable, Lethal Item, Fire, 20 Charges, 30,000,000 Gold) User gains +30% to Hit, Cures Confusion on user, Inflicts Poison on all individuals who are not user, -3,000 to all stats of all individuals who are not user, User chooses a an entity from the Enemy List that is normally fightable for drops that is of a Level equal to or lower than possessor's Level that is equal to or lower than Level 20 that is normally fightable for drops and applies one stacked instance of every debuff that enemy could naturally apply to all opponents (with the same application conditionals as the debuffs on said enemy), buffs and debuffs resulting from this item's effects (including its ability to replicate abilities from the Enemy List) last 50 rounds and do not stack
Diviner's Cigarettes- (Consumable, Lethal Item, Fire, 20 Charges, 200,500 Gold) +9% to Hit, +9% Dodge, 80% cures Confusion, 80% inflicts Poison, 80% inflicts Discomfort, lasts 5 rounds, does not stack
Infinity Sticks- (Consumable, Medicine, Spatial & Time, Unlimited Charges, 200,000,000 Gold) +50% to Hit, Cures Confusion, Target regenerates 2,000,000 HP at the start of each round and is cured of Poison, Confusion, Diseased, Hexed, and Impaired at the start of each round, Target may enter any battlespace that is part of the same battle at the start of each round so long as no individual of Level 60 or greater in either the battlespace being entered or the battlespace being left objects, May only target user, this item's name counts as including 'Cigarette', does not stack

Spells-
Iaijutsu Strike- (Spell, Sword Arts, Air & Electricity, 300 MP, 290,000 Gold) Caster equips an unequipped weapon and immediately performs a single 'Melee Attack' action that includes no spells or techniques and that may only target one individual. Said attack deals an extra amount of damage of the same combination of elements it already deals in its standard damage equal to twice the Melee Attack bonus provided by the weapon that this spell equipped, to a max of 5,000,000 Damage.
Cosmic Doctor Fist- (Spell, Healer Magic, Astral, 30,000 MP, 15,000,000 Gold) +15,000 Melee Attack, May Heal, May cure any one minor or moderate negative status effect, May cure any one debuff with a source below Level 70, Caster must be Level 35 or greater
Colossus Hurl- (Spell, Unarmed Technique, Earth & Physical & Air, 100,000 MP, 61,000,000 Gold) +61,000 Melee Attack, +61,000 Ranged Attack, Caster may change target's row to the Front Row or the Back Row if target is below Level 90 and has lower Strength than caster or is below Level 40, Caster must be Level 40 or greater
Sanguine Glee- (Spell, Other: Murder Arts, Blood, 18,000 MP, 18,000,000 Gold) +18,000 Melee Attack, Deals HP Drain, 5% caster gains another action after this action if it killed a non-allied target or dealt more than 50% of a non-allied target's Max HP, Caster must be Level 20 or greater
Ride Into Battle on a Sword- (Spell, Combat Arts, Physical & Air, 400 MP, 75,000 Gold) +85 Melee Attack, 5% inflicts Confusion: Surprised, This spell may not be cast normally, this spell's possessor may auto-cast it at the beginning of battle as part of a Melee Attack action that may be made from any row that actions may normally be taken in that deals normal damage from the back row, Wielder must have a Sword equipped to cast this spell

Pets-
None

Transformations-
None

Modified Stats:
"Zweirugi" Sword-Vashna (Draconics)
Level 59
Golem & Sword, Mystic & Void & Time & Fate & Sonic & Life
HP- 5,059,100
MP- 2,210,550
STR- 12340
AGI- 8340
CON- 8340
MIN- 8340
SPI- 8340 (+800 Turn-order)
Fame- 27

+118,919 Melee Attack (May Heal, May deal MP Damage, x2 caps, capped from +770,199+((1d10/2)*400,000) )
+2,396 Ranged Attack (NOTE: Ranged attacks use melee attack bonus and STR, May deal 750 AGI damage)
+13,745 Magical Attack (May Heal, May deal MP Damage, capped from 405,405)
262% To Hit
161% Critical (x4 Critical)
100% inflicts any 3 minor or moderate negative status effects
75% inflicts any two minor or moderate negative status effect (but not sub-status effect except Paralyzed: Temporal Stasis, Imparied: Mute, Charm: Impressed, Voidstruck: Turned To Shadow, Manablasted: Mystic Seal, Stat Drain: AGI Drain, Stat Drain: SPI Drain, Stat Drain: MAG Drain, Stat Drain: MIN Drain, Manablasted: Mystic Leak, Fatigued: Elderly, Antimatter: Obliterated, or Stat Drain: ELM Drain)
40% may inflict Manablasted
40% may inflict Antimatter
2% inflicts Instant Death, Smitten, or Petrified: Time Stop
'Melee Attack' and 'Magical Attack' actions may remove one buff from a source below Level 60 on each of their targets
'Melee Attack' actions may destroy all of the non-unique spells worth under 100,000,000 Gold equipped by their targets
'Attack With Finesse' actions may deal full Damage to targets in the back row and may target individuals below Level 80 who are in different battlespaces
'Melee Attack' actions and 'Attack with Finesse' actions may use Spirit or Agility as their Prime Attribute (or Strength)
'Melee Attack' actions may become solely Glory element
'Ranged Attack' actions cannot miss targets below Level 40, deal full Damage to back row, and may target individuals below Level 40 who are in different battlespaces
'Magical Attack' actions scan their targets' stats
Wielder ignores the Defense of individuals below Level 60
Wielder ignores the Defense of non-unique individuals below Level 80
Wielder ignores the Resistances, Immunities, and Reflections of individuals below Level 60
Targets of Zweirugi's offensive actions that have a higher SPI than wielder obtain a debuff that causes their actions that do not have a Natural MP cost of 0 to cost 2,000,000 MP in addition to their other costs that stacks 5 times
Individuals killed by Zweirugi have their corpses disappear if they are below Level 80 and Zweirugi desires such
Individiuals killed by Zweirugi cannot be resurrected by sources below Level 80
Offensive Actions have Camel-fire effect, see above
'Magical Attack' actions may not be countered by individuals below Level 10
5% creates the item Exquisitely-Crafted Wooden Bee Cut-Out from each Plant dealt the final killing blow by this weapon
Deals Drain with hits that kill targets

+23,980 Defense (capped from +227,500)
167% Dodge
160% Resilience
Individuals below Level 60 who both have not scanned possessor's stats and could not target possessor if possessor were in a different battlespace cannot hit possessor with attacks
40% War Resistance
40% Destruction Resistance
25% Mystic Resistance
25% Chaos Resistance
25% Light Resistance
20% Physical Resistance
20% Technology Resistance
20% Earth Resistance
20% Magic Resistance
5% Glory Resistance
5% Darkness Resistance
5% Fire Resistance
Charm Immunity
Stat Drain Immunity
Wounded Immunity
Paralyzed Immunity
Manablasted Immunity
Poison Immunity
Disease Immunity
Hexed Immunity
Pain Immunity
Confusion: Fear Immunity
Impaired: Deafened Immunity
Immune to debuffs from sources below Level 60
Cannot obtain debuffs or negative status effects from sources below Level 60
Cured of all minor negative status effects at the start of each round
Sources below Level 60 cannot force wielder to leave battle or change rows
Immune to individuals below Level 40
Defense cannot be pierced by individuals below Level 60
Opponents below Level 60 cannot summon
Opponents may not leave battle without Zweirugi's permission if below Level 60
Individuals below Level 80 cannot prevent Zweirugi from resurrecting individuals
Individuals below Level 20 may not unequip or steal Zweirugi's equipped Swords without Zweirugi's permission

Various Effects:
Regenerates 200,000 HP and 200,000 MP at the start of each round, Sources below Level 60 may not prevent wielder from healing or regenerating HP or MP
20% chance of being able to change all targets of any single action of a lower-level individual that is below Level 40 each time such an individual conducts an action provided wielder's last action killed any entity that is not an ally of wielder
+20,000 to its turn-order-determining stat sum for turn-order-determining purposes and +400,000 Magical Attack as an uncapped effect if wielder has no allies and at least one of wielder's opponents is a Boss
2 hits against 1 against Bosses
All non-unique Spells equipped by wielder that are worth under 100,000,000 Gold may, at wielder's discretion, become solely the subtype Wizard Magic, the subtype Combat Arts, the subtype Time Magic, the subtype Dark Magic, the subtype Combat Arts, the subtype Sword Arts, the subtype Astral Magic, the subtype Transmutation, the subtype Anarchomancy, the subtype Leadership, the subtype Ritual Magic, the subtype Divination, or the subtype Enchantment at the start of every round
Counts as having an additional spell of every base subtype equipped, counts as having an additional spell of every subtype that wielder has at least one spell equipped from equipped,
Wielder counts as possessing 5 additional abilities from each base class excluding 'Prophet of the Brightest Heavens', 'Prophet of the Darkest Abysses', 'Chronicler of Eternity', and 'Hand of Valcont', Wielder counts as possessing 5 additional abilities from the class 'Radiant Hierophant', May choose to count as possessing one more ability in each class that possessor posssesses at least 1 ability in
May, up to 12 times per thread as an action that is delayed 0 to 25 rounds, replicate the effect of any ability performable by a monster on the enemy list that is below Level 60, below caster's Level, and (normally fightable for drops or that is the entity 'Clock Stopper's Apprentice', 'Grandmaster', 'Clock Stopper', or 'Lesser Star Eater'), doing so as though said monster is performing said ability
May shift Sword of Vashna to other types at the start of round
+7,500 to all stats while wielder is in a Chronogeomantic Zone of Night
May spend an action to become the item '*Sword of Vashna'
May bring 2 unequipped weapons into threads
May, at the start of any round or the start of any of possessor's actions, become the same non-Universe element as any ally, any equipped Armor, or any Zone that possessor is in
May deal 100,000 Flat Destruction or Fury element Damage to any one target once per round when possessor switches rows
SWORD ARTS CASTING: +14810 Melee Attack, +50 Magical Attack, costs 30,670 less MP
Divine Magic, War Magic, and Catastrophe Magic spells cost wearer 300,000 less MP to cast
Has Crisis Zone: Doesn't do anything past enabling techniques
May spend an action to make any one Sword equipped by Zweirugi solely Zweirugi's elements
May spend an action to resurrect a worshipper if said worshipper was killed by a source below Level 80 and no individual capable of granting worshipper benefits objects
May target individuals below Level 60 who are in different battlespaces so long as no individual of Level 90 or greater who is in either battlespace objects
Is afflicted with Elevated, Favored, and Favored: Anointed at the start of every round


Stances:
Parrying Stance: +16,680 Defense
Weapon Juggling: Can un/equip weapons before or after a Melee Attack/Overdrive or an Attack with Finesse Action
Thrice-Warped Stance: *Still training to this . . .*
Sheer-Offensive Stance: 0% Resilience, 83% Dodge, 1/2 Defense, +41% to hit, +80% Critical, +(1/2 Defense) Damage

Techniques (those that matter at least):
Awesome Slash
Crisis Slash
Critical Slash
Cut through Space
Deft Slash
Essence-Warped Strike
Gobsmacking Slash
Greater Banishing Slash
Greater Erasure Slash
Hungering Slash
Ignition Slash
Lunging Slash
Mage King's Demise
Mamma Bear Slash
Maximal Casting
Ruin Strike
Science-Destroyer
Strong Slash
Sweeping Slash
Sword Echo
Throw Sword
Time-Split Cut
Tri-Slash
Umbral Slash
X-Slaying Slash (Where X = Aerial, Alien, Aquatic, Bio-Horror, Coded-Being, Cthonian, Darkspawn, Demon, Devil, Dragon, Elemental, Fae, Golem, Horror, Human, Humanoid, Insect, Machine, Magic-Being, Monster, Ooze, Plant, Prime, Reptile, Robot, Shapeshifter, Solar Being, Spirit, Umbral, or Undead)
Crisis Overcrash: Million-Sword Rain


Berserk:
Does not attack allies
1/thread can inflict Fatigued: Berserk on self
+5 Base STR, +5 Base CON, and +3 Base AGI -> +2950 STR, +2950 CON, +1770 AGI


Ally Buffs:
Allies gain +10,000 to all stats and +100,000 HP and MP as a non-stacking bonus
Allies and Zweirugi may elect to receive worshipper benefits from possessor if they are not already receiving such benefits, Said benefits include +50 Melee Attack, +50 STR, +50 CON, and +25 AGI per level of worshipper, to a max of Level 80, Said benefits only take effect if none of possessor's opponents are capable of granting worshipper benefits



Brought Unequipped (via Armed To The Gills):
Evil Blade of the Great Devourer- (Weapon, Sword, Destruction & Darkness, 180,000,000 Gold) +180,000 Melee Attack, +180,000 STR, +180,000 CON, 215% To Hit, 120% Critical, Wielder's 'Melee Attack', 'Powerful Attack', and 'Melee Overdrive' actions gain 'deals HP Drain', Damage dealt by wielder's 'Melee Attack', 'Powerful Attack', and 'Melee Overdrive' actions may not be healed by sources below Level 80, Wearer’s per-item Melee Attack bonus cap becomes 2x the relevant stat, The sword is intelligent, violent, vocal, and hungry as an RP effect, May only be wielded by individuals of Level 40 or greater
Infinite Dragon's Sword- (Weapon, Sword, Glory & Spatial & Time, 300,000,000 Gold) +300,000 Melee Attack, +300,000 Magical Attack, +300,000 to all stats, Wielder is resurrected at the start of each round if killed by a source below Level 70, Wielder regenerates 3,000,000 HP and MP at the start of each round, Wielder is Immune to individuals below Level 40, Wielder must be Level 40 or greater

The plate mail clinks and clatters as the lone and bespectacled sword-master approaches the gate to Seirei. His profession obvious due to the two blades sheathed at his waist, one marked with the endless serpent and another with a shade-wearing camel's head. On his back another hangs concealed, peace-bonded twice-over and wrapped in a simple cloth to muffle the whispers for sustenance. In his form lies his namesake.

Reaching into a bandolier that only holds a single knife, Zweirugi unfurls a small parchment hastily jotted by a hand not his but similar.

Vashna wrote:Go learn some finesse. Help this man out.
"Tristan Doce at the Clavia Academy for the August Order of Spirit Tamers"

Zweirugi folds and replaces the paper before heading through.

[Modrageball]

Zwei arrives in a palatially-appointed hall paved in shining marble, its soaring, vaulted ceilings and carved archways supported by exquisitely-detailed columns of green jade. Great reliefs picked out in semiprecious stones adorn the walls, and vast, elaborate windows fill the structure with misty light.

A row of marble desks, each seamlessly carved as if sprouting from the floor, form a border across the room's centre. Only one is manned at present, its occupant a severe-looking woman in gaudy yet immaculately-arrayed robes, her dark hair sculpted into an elaborate fan and secured with a multitude of golden pins. Two guardsmen stand to attention beside her, their green leather armour bearing a lock-and-crossed-keys emblem.
Past the desks, small groups of people gather, some in grey robes with tall hats, others robed in red and white.

Zweirugi, not sure what's going on in particular, decides to keep it simple. He walks over to the woman's desk and crosses his arm.

"HEY Maaaaaaam~. Where's the Clavia Academy?"

The woman fixes Zweirugi with a look that suggested he just told a particularly inappropriate joke at a formal dinner party.
"If by the 'Clavia Academy' you mean the Clavia Academy for the August Order of Spirit Tamers, it is located in the city of Clavia. It is, however, not a place that just anyone can enter, considering the far higher station of its patrons and students. If, however, you meant the Clavian Musical Arts Academy and are, in fact, here to assist with..." the woman flicks a glance at the swordsman's appearance "...the repair effort, I can certainly furnish you with directions and papers to provide unhindered passage to the city."

"No, no, you were right before the second guess. It's the Clavia Academy for the August Order of Spirit Tamers, or so the note said."

He shrugs and rolls his shoulders, "But seriously, there's someone there I'm going to go help out. It'd be optimally prime if I could talk in person. Though I'm not sure if I can say who given the deal."

Something flickers at the edge of Zwei's vision.

One perfectly-sculpted eyebrow raises. "Indeed? Unless you have proof or happen to meet the individual in question, you should prepare for disappointment. The affairs of the Academy are the business of none but the Spirit Tamers, and it is unlikely you would even reach the Jade Gate without express invitation." The woman holds the swordsman with a cold gaze for a few moments.
"Regardless, if you still wish to embark on such a venture... Atra."
The woman, seemingly without having moved, now has a key in her hand. This becomes apparent when it erupts into a whirling gout of ink, tendrils of black fluid spinning themselves together into the form of a faceless woman drawn onto thin air. "See to this gentleman's papers."
Sheets of paper begin to lift off the desk of their own accord, meeting the 'hands' of the living ink-drawing as it gestures, text and images filling the pages.
"You are a visitor to our world," the clerk continues, "and, as such shall be expected to abide by our laws in a manner befitting one, all the more so given your intended destination, the seat of power of the Great House Clavis of the August Order of Spirit Tamers. Should you encounter members of the esteemed Order, you are to afford them the greatest respect at all times, and refrain from impeding the performance of their vital duties to the House, the people, and indeed the world at large. Comport yourself with dignity and decorum, and your stay shall be a pleasant one."

The papers flick themselves into a neat pile. The woman gives it a brief glance and nods, apparently satisfied.
"Your papers are ready. I have included a brief overview of the laws of the land, along with matters regarding recognition and appropriate deference to pay the Spirit Tamers. Clavia is several hours' journey west of this complex. Simply follow the signposts to reach it. I wish you a safe journey..." the woman pauses, one eyebrow raising again. "...'Sword-Vashna'."

Zwei gets:

*Zweirugi's Papers from the Seirei Portal- (Bound Accessory, Quest Item, Light & Darkness, 1,000 Gold) +1 SPI

Zweirugi staggers, "Oh man, I need whatever you're scanning with! Watch out for the wielder." He rolls up the papers a bit and sticks them in his bandolier next to the knife.

"I'll thank you for the reading material, I may review it on the trip, speaking of which . . " he closes one eye and tilts his head at an odd angle while locking the singular gaze, "are there any no-fly zones in transit from here to the capital? I intend to make haste!"

"Oh! Also, miss, can I call you that? You never told me your name. Whatever. If attacked am I allowed to defend myself, in this realm?"

He pauses and eyes go wide.

"Can I smoke here?"

The clerk maintains her frosty demeanour in the face of overwhelming sarcasm and/or paranoia. "At present there are no restrictions on aerial travel, save for around the uppermost district of Clavia. Unless your opponents are members of the Great Houses or law enforcement, self-defense is permitted. As for smoking, there is no edict preventing it."

"Awesome! I really don't hate you lady, but we all gotta let the hair down at the end of the day . . . . . "

He stops and staggers again, "well, unless one's a corpse, AND I MEAN NO ILL WILL BY THAT! Anyroad, I gotta jet before this gets more awkward."

He stands up straight as wings of destructive fire rip out of the vents in his plate mail. He reaches into his sleeve pocket to draw out a cig, lights it on his wings and then places it in his mouth. After a long draw, he looks to her, "Wow, want one?" He offers, holding the box towards her with one popped out.

Regardless of her choice, he will rocket out of there towards Clavia!

(Unless stated, he's smoking Infinity Sticks, since they never run out.)

The woman, once again, looks at Zwei as if he offered her a dead mouse. The choice apparently made, Zwei rockets out of hall, scattering small pockets of robed individuals on his way.
Manicured lawns and marble courtyards whizz by in a blur, abruptly giving way to dazzling sunlight and a brilliant, endless sky of cloudless blue. The mid-morning sun streams from the heavens, vying for attention with the enormous green moon at the sky's zenith, its surface a rippling, undulating carpet of verdant hues, occasionally interrupted with miniscule flashes of other colours, giving the impression the entire thing is sparkling. A smaller, brown moon, scarred and torn, hovers lower in the sky, its surface dull.
The sword-variant of Vashna gains altitude, the land spreading out beneath him in a beautiful blaze of swaying wildflowers, bisected by the white ribbon of a wide, smooth stone road. To the west, the hills become even higher and more pronounced, the road beginning to weave through them and vanishing from sight. To the east, colourful wildflower meadows stretch and the hills flatten, although fields of a different sort are visible as beginning to set in many miles away. The north holds yet more wildflowers, interspersed here and there with patches of tall grassland swaying and rippling in the breeze, eventually giving way to a series of plains and one or two tree-crowned hills. From this height, the sword-man can also make out a faint golden tinge to the horizon at the extents of his vision.

A fluttering, flapping sound catches Zwei's attention. Something is caught in his bandolier.

"Oh-?"

With a wild yet calculated, aerial spin-out Zweirugi cuts his momentum. Flexing his hand he plucks whatever has gotten caught gently and holds it out in front of him. His free hand incinerating the rest of his cig before adjusting his glasses to have a look at it.

"-what have we here? I don't recall ordering a stowaway."

The offending article appears to be made of paper, cut into a heavily-simplified human-shape- a small, round head, two long arms spread outwards, and a long strip forming the body and legs. The entire thing is heavily arrayed with a complicated, compact design involving some sort of odd symbolic text.
As Zwei examines it, a vivid blue glow flickers around its edges, accompanied by a soft chime.

Zwei's face looks very concerned, "Oh man, I'm going to presume this is magic. If it is, I'm going to further assume this is either a spirit thing, a familiar thing, a message thing, or a bomb." His eyes go wider, "I'd hunch the latter if allowed a guess. And I assume this isn't a bomb of confetti."

"THEREFORE! I'm a scientist!" He poses in midair, his arms askew for but a moment.

He holds it up and draws the imitation Nohkret sword. "Magic thingamabob, you have until the end of my patience to show your intentions and prove my hypothesis wrong. Or explode, and I'll suffer grim satisfaction!"

Nothing happens for a few seconds. Then a tinny rustling sound, faintly audible, issues forth from the doll.

Rustle rustle
rustlerustlrustle
rustlescrabbleTHUMP

"Ah... hello?"
A faint male voice, just as tinny, filters through.
"Hello? Is someone there?"

Zweirugi looks almost disappointed, his visage reflecting such at the very least, "Shit," he places his sword back and brings it closer to talk into.

He rolls his eyes and sighs, "This is Zweirugi of the Nexus Battle Arena. I'm here on business. State your name and affiliation."

"Nexus?" The tinny voice sounds almost incredulous. "You... you're from Nexus, the world beyond the portal?"
More faint, frantic scrabbling can be heard through the paper doll.
"I don't believe it! It worked! The spell actually-- and you--- I-- ah... excuse me. I'm getting ahead of myself. Ah... how to begin?"
A pause.
"My name is Tristan Doce, a teacher and exorcist in service of the Clavia Acadamy for the August Order of Spirit Tamers. If the spell worked as intended and you are indeed from the world of Nexus, then you must be here about the... ah... situation I requested help for."

Zweirugi, pulls out another cigarette and lights it on his wings again. He calms a bit.

He grits his teeth with disgust, reminded vaguely of bats. He speaks, holding back his scowl as best he can, "I'm from Nexus and I'm currently en route to Clavia towards the order that can't handle abbreviations. I was sent to handle this mission as a test of finesse that the posting seemed to call for."

He sighs, "So what's the gig? And how do I know you're really Mr. Doce and not an impostor?"

"Ah... I certainly hadn't considered having to prove who I was. I suppose I could recall the exact words I wrote on the request for help, but besides that, I'm uncertain how I'd be able to convince you I was myself, barring certain types of spell." A pause. "I suppose I'll have to leave it up to your choice whether to... ah... believe me or not. This is not a request that will benefit me, however, or, I expect, anyone...ah... impersonating me."

More shuffling.

"Ah... I'm really not supposed to be telling anyone not involved with the Academy any of this, or indeed asking for this sort of service at all, but I'm at my wit's end."
The voice suddenly sounds very, very tired.
"The truth is, six of my students are missing. And nobody is doing anything about it."
Another pause.
"Ah... I'm sorry. I mean, there's been no progr-- no. No, even I can't believe that. Two weeks ago, six children that attended my classes abruptly stopped arriving for their lessons. I followed the proper procedures, noted their absence, and thought nothing more of it until they failed to turn up for their next lesson. I brought up what I thought was a misbehaviour issue with their class tutors, then their dorm masters, and found they had all vanished on around the same day and hadn't returned."
The voice begins to sound somewhat desperate.
"I was assured they were being searched for and all would be well, but when they still hadn't returned two days later, I... ah... took it upon myself to... ah... gain access to the student board, which showed them as being off campus, with a few injuries between them."

The doll falls silent for a moment.

"I wasn't supposed to tell you about that, either, but I suppose I'm going to have to be... ah... forthcoming if I'm to establish any measure of trust. The student board holds a talisman for each student, enchanted to provide information on their status and location, if on campus. They remain able to track a student's wellbeing a good distance outside of the Academy, and indeed for a few miles outside the city, which led me to believe they couldn't have gone far. All that bringing the topic up with the dorm masters and heads of department did was to earn me a reprimand, however." The speaker takes on a despairing tone. "That's when I decided to post the... ah... request. I even sent correspondance to the City Guard and the Hunter's Association. Something must have happened, however, because you're the first I've heard from since then. And now staff are not permitted to pass the Jade Gate without a permit, all information regarding the search within the Academy has been suppressed, and furthermore, the talismans of the students in question have been removed from the student board... I... I just don't know what to do."

Zweirugi sighs long and thinks for a moment, eyes glazing over he fumbles his cigarette and comes out of the thought, "R-right, so you've got kids somewhere that went missing, that are in and around the city, and you know there's a conspiracy that can't be solved with murder. Great. What do you have for leads and information?"

He starts to fly again, so as not to dawdle away more time. "Also, can you get me there faster? This long flight is a drag."

He eyes go wide, "ALSO! DID YOU HAVE THAT BITCH SLIP THIS TALISMAN INTO MY PAPERS?!"

The person on the other end of the doll sounds somewhat taken aback. "Ah... I'm... not sure to whom you might be referring, but the talisman I'm presently communicating through was hidden behind one of the pillars in the hall housing the portal to your world of Nexus. It was to become active should anyone come through the portal and mention the Academy, secreting it on their person and alerting me when active. I... ah... was concerned that it wouldn't work, as it was the first time I've bound such a relavitely complex set of instructions to a communication talisman. I had to infuse it with a great deal of spiritual energy, and inscribe the spell to take on the properties of a fabricated spirit's intelligence... ah... but... I don't believe that's relevant to the matter at hand."

Zwei hurtles off to the west, the grassy terrain below rising in gentle hills much like a rumpled carpet, the peaks steadily increasing in height as the flight continues. Below, the white ribbon of the road begins to bend and sway, dotted here and there with travelers and animal-propelled vehicles.

"Ah... I'm afraid information is rather hard to come by, given the circumstances. There are very few possibilities that I can think of that would result in the children going missing for this length of time, and none of them are particularly...ah... pleasant. I considered that they may have left to explore the city and had been kidnapped, but for Spirit Tamers, even Neophytes, to be treated such is... it's... it's utterly unthinkable."

Hills drift by in relative silence for a while.

"I also considered that they may have shed their robes- itself an unheard-of idea- in order to see how the ordinary citizens of the city live, somehow losing them and their spirits in the process- perhaps even being robbed!- thus losing anything that could officially identify them and preventing their ability to access the House District, never mind reaching the Jade Gate."

The road splits, a smaller branch winding off between the hills to the north. Small clumps of trees and pools begin populating the peaks and valleys.

"...the only other option that I can think of, and I most sincerely hope this isn't the case, is that they somehow gained access to the Old City for reasons I can only guess at. I... ah... apologise that I can't be of more help. I fear the best I can do is clarify or provide information on matters of this world that are unfamiliar to you, restricted as I presently am. On which topic, I'm afraid I'm unable to... ah... render any assistance to speed your progress. This talisman took all of my expertise to make, and is only capable of conveying words."

[Modrageball]

Zwei considers, "Right, I need a few things then. I'm not big on subtlety, that's my master's jig. Aside, I need access to the Academy to investigate. I need visual descriptions on these kids. I need the location of this 'Old City'."

"Ah... I'm... afraid the first two requests will be somewhat problematic to fulfil. Access to the House District is heavily restricted, generally only to those who have an official pass issued by House Clavis, are members of one of the Great Houses themselves, or happen to be in their direct employ. The Academy is even further restricted, and none save staff, students or members of the Great Houses are allowed on the grounds except, again, with express permission from the Headmistress or House Clavis. Given the recent restrictions imposed on the entire campus, I fear that any visits would be... ah... quite impossible."

The sound of papers shuffling and things being knocked about issues faintly from the doll. "As for descriptions, there is a... ah... slight problem there. All Spirit Tamers, even Neophytes, are required by tradition to wear their obscuring robes and veiled hats at all times. Only in the sole company of other members of the Great Houses or to those they trust above all else do Tamers remove their coverings. Supposedly, it is to distance them from the ordinary citizens, that should a wayward spirit require punishment or capture by the Order, retribution would fall solely upon those who hold the power and duty to deal with it. Ah... but I digress. I'll tell you what I can."
A tinny cough breaks the explanation.
"The oldest to go missing is Ferroc Clavis. He's ten years old, and carries a red key, its bow shaped like a lizard's coiled tail, containing a Ruby Salamander. His younger brother, Curro, is eight, and carries a black key with a triangular bow, containing a lantern-spirit. Also missing is their cousin from a branch family, Lyra Renn Clavis. She's also eight, and carries a simple white key containing small Melos- a type of song-spirit."
More shuffling.
"There's Lucern Relicta, nine years old, who will have a length of chain on his person, which contains a Vincul- a chain-spirit. Molen Gladia, nine, carries a stone blade that allows him to use the power of the spirit within it. And Bellis Fiora... she's... she's only six years old. I've never seen her without her pink seed-pouch at her side." Tristan sighs. "All of them will be wearing the white robes and veiled hats of a Neophyte of the Order, although those from the Clavis family will have the green lock-and-crossed-keys sigil embroidered on theirs, Lucern will have the Relicta crest of three circles within a blue shrine on his, Molen the three red blades of the Great House Gladia, and Bellis the seven-petalled lotus of House Fiora."

Below Zwei, ponds and lakes nestling at the bottom of valleys reflect the azure sky and emerald moon, rustling groves of trees and larger woodlands covering much of the outlying countryside. Travelers continue sedately making their way to their destinations, more numerous than before thanks to traffic from adjoining roads.

"Ah... where was I? The Old City? I believe it is located across a bridge from the Lower District on the western edge of Clavia, but it... ah... shouldn't be accessible. The doors to the place have been sealed for centuries. If there was another way in, though..."
An uncomfortable pause.
"...I wouldn't want to consider what might be down there. Given the history, and how long it's been abandoned, spirits must be running rampant among the halls."

Zwei considers, "A pair of the billowy mages from the corporation have robes like those. I wonder what symbols they had."

"Regardless, I'll make something clear. I'm an impatient man, and I'm flying. Can I fly into the old city? Second, can you arrange an appointment with me and the headmistress?" Zweirugi smiles ruthlessly.

"Fly into the Old City? That would be rather... ah... difficult. From what I know of the area's history, it's underground, and the only entrance is the one I mentioned previously, in the side of the chasm atop which Clavia stands. There may be some more information on possible other entrances in the Academy's library, or from some sources in town. I... ah... believe I know of two that might have texts relating to that time period."
Sounds of movement come from the paper doll, along with footsteps.
"Ah... as for arranging an appointment with the headmistress, I'm afraid that only department heads and the senior staff are permitted audience with her at this time. Not that she was particularly easy to approach beforehand. As a recently-inducted... ah... teacher of exorcism, I barely have the right to approach the Head of Exorcism, and given my previous concerns being waved off..."
"Good morning, Tristan."
"Ah... good morning."
"You're in quite the rush."
"Just... ah... going to the library to gather material for my... ah... lesson plans."

Zweirugi has had enough of this. He's still flying, they won't let him in to the school or the old city, and he's told to essentially figure it all out. He's had his wits end on this.

His hair erupts into fire, he readies a new cigarette, starts on it, and his form starts to shimmer as though he may not in fact be there. His voice echoes and resounds into the communication charm as he begins speaking made-up words in a deep voice with measured syllables.

The swordsman concentrates and focuses, on what he heard, what he knows is on the other side of the call.
Tristan Doce
An unexpected guest
Papers . . .

He smiles and draws out his namesake sword from his palm. He breathes slowly as hefts his arm back, and then throws himself at a right-angle to reality. Using the glasses and the innate ability on the blade itself, Zweirugi attempt to attack one of the papers he heard at random, with the glasses-effect of a blade striking from the shadows if possible. As it does he ruptures forth from the blade itself with a dark laugh.

(He's SO dropping a one-liner, but not until I know he's for-certain through and I know what he sees)

"Well, then, I wish you-- what's that sound?"
"I... ah... I don't--"

Zwei focuses on the source of the voices, chanting impressive-sounding arcane nonsense in tones deep and resonant. He focuses on the power inherent in his glasses, in himself, feeling the gentle tug of possibility that he could be there instead of here, takes aim, and flies--

--speedshadowsmovementLIGHT--

CHANGK

Zweirugi, laughing darkly, emerges from the blade in a flash of shadows and fire. He finds himself holding himself (his sword-self, at least) buried in the wall of a wide, high-ceilinged corridor of dark-panelled wood, tall windows at regular intervals letting the morning sunlight stream in to illuminate the rich, green carpets, fine paintings, gleaming woodgrain, and the two figures looking on in absolute horror.

One of the horrified onlookers is a mousy-looking woman dressed in red and white robes, her long hair tied back in a braid and fastened with a simple red ribbon. Zwei has a rather good view of this, as he currently has her pinned to the wall of the hallway by the large stack of papers in her hands, which she seems to be too shocked to let go of.

The other is presently occupying the floor, being a tall, young man in grey robes, an eboshi-like hat perched haphazardly atop his black mop of hair, his spectacles askew.

There is a moment of silence while all parties involved consider the situation.

Then the mousy woman starts screaming.

"I've had ENOUGH OF THIS!" Zweirugi pulls his blade out the wall.

Music

He draws out the Ouroboros blade as well. With a slow and measured stance he looks upon the other two and then to neither as though they didn't matter.

"I AM the fiery vengeance!

I AM the unbound voice!

I AM the keen vertex!

I AM NIISCHWERT, THIS INVESTIGATION HAS BEGUN!"

His wide-eyed gaze, looks about the room, "FETCH THE LEADER OF THIS ESTABLISHMENT IMMEDIATELY, I HAVE NO WISH TO SPILL THE BLOOD OF THOSE BENEATH MY WRATHFUL GAZE."

Swords still drawn, bespectacled eyes, wings and hair ablaze, Zweirugi walks hunched down the corridor swaying about as though looking for clues. He IS looking for clues, but moreso gauging reactions of those that encounter him for suspicious behavior. He's also ready for a counter-offensive, given his demeanor.

Zwei utters his dark ultimatum, stomping off down the hall to the screams of the mousy-haired woman, who has by now taken the sensible approach of fleeing in the opposite direction, still clutching her stack of ruined papers.

The polished wooden-panelled walls of the hall contain equally lustrous doors, all with little brass nameplates set on them. From what Zwei can gather from the ones that aren't identified through various names, this area is likely the (or at least, a) staff and administration part of the Academy. Several doors open at the swordsman's blazing passage, many shutting just as swiftly as their occupants rapidly reevaluate their curiosity.
A little more stomping along reveals that he's presently on the ground floor of whatever building he ended up throwing himself into, the windows providing a view into a sizable and well-sculpted courtyard, much of it thrown into shadow by the huge building on the other side, something between a white-stone gothic cathedral and an eastern castle.
Presently, the swordsman comes across an interruption in the steady parade of offices in the form of a stairwell leading upwards, little brass signs affixed on either side before the doors start up again.

One has a little arrow pointing upwards.
Staff Offices
Dormitory Masters' Offices
Department Meeting Rooms
Administration Offices

The other points further along the hallway.
Library
Records
Senior Staff Building
Staff Dining Hall
Staff Quarters
Staff Common Rooms

Zweirugi, maintaining the charade lets out a long, deep exhalation before ascending. He's going to slowly scour his way to the 'Administration Offices'.

Zwei clambers up richly-carpeted stairs, singeing the polished wooden walls as he passes. The first floor looks to contain more of the staff offices, as well as the Dormitory Masters'. The second holds the department meeting rooms, as well as offices for heads of departments- curiously, however, it only seems to contain the department head offices for more 'mundane' subjects, such as History or Literature.

The second floor also contains a solid pair of polished dark-wood double doors where (presumably) the flight of stairs to the third floor would be, a simple brass plate on both reading 'Administration Offices'. They appear to be locked.

"M-mister... ah... Zweirugi? Th-there has been an... ah... incident. I-I'm afraid my... ah... trip to the library to research entrances to the Old City may be s-significantly... ah... delayed due to a sudden... ah... intruder. I fear one of the students may have... ah... summoned something and lost control of it."
Tristan's worried voice stammers from the paper doll. Faint screams warble in the background, tinny and distorted.
"I-I'm sure one of the... ah... Heads of Departments will deal with it presently, b-but I thought it... ah... prudent to inform you, given your... ah... noted desire to get started as soon as possible.""

Zweirugi lets loose a soft whisper, like that of a greased scabbard.

"Oh dear, you seem to have mistaken my pacing. Fetch the headmaster as I have ordered. I'm getting to the bottom of this. I'm almost to the administration offices."

Zweirugi, hands indisposed with weaponry, will dramatically kick open the door.

"Th-that was you?! M-Mr. Zweirugi, you need to leave at once! The.. ah... the senior staff likely know of your arrival already by this time, and sh-should they find you, the results could be dire!"

Zwei boots open the door, tromping up the stairs to the floor above.

The Administration Offices are rather unlike the previous floors, being for the most part a wide-open space, the rich green carpets dotted with regularly-placed desks, the windows surrounded by rows and rows of polished brass-and-wood filing cabinets, lending a curiously oppressive air to the area. Panelled walls create bottlenecks on the far ends of the room (at least as far as Zwei can see), presumably containing more secure offices.

A couple of clerks in smart uniforms look up at the sudden intrusion, suprised.

(Does there appear to be an exit from here?)

"Have some faith in my skills"

He enters, and holds his swords out wide.

"I AM NIISCHWERT, THE FIERY INVESTIGATOR! THE FLAME OF JUSTICE!"

He starts to skulk about, looking. And still yelling, "WHERE IS THAT WHOM RUNS THIS LOCALE?! SUMMON THEM TO ME!"

Does he see anything in here relating to the kids? Do any of the clerks fear overtly for their lives?

Zwei doesn't see anything immediately that could relate to the children, but the place is rather large and filled with desks and filing cabinets. From what he can gather from glimpses out of the window, the floor plan of the building seems to be in a rough, inverted L-shape, the lip of the L curving around to the left to join another section of the building- this one continuing several more floors up in the form of a wide, round dome-topped tower. The route that way appears to be through the private-office section of the Administration floor.
(If necessary, I can provide a rough sketch to help with the visualisation)

The clerks seem utterly terrified at the flaming swordsman's sudden appearance, alternately fleeing further into the building or hiding behind their desks.

"I d- I don't think you quite understand how much... ah... power they hold! The Heads and senior staff are all highly accomplished practitioners of the spiritual arts in their own right..."
The doll falls silent for a moment.
"...all I... ah... ask is that you don't bring undue harm to anyone. I'll... I'll try to use this... ah... distraction to find out more information."

The faint sound of rapid footsteps can be heard from the direction of the stairwell.

Zweirugi brings his swords in closer, not blatantly on the defense, but mentally preparing himself for it. (He'll actually sink into Parrying Stance here) He proceeds to the private-office administration area, his hunch being that the dome is his target.

I can't find anything, then again Tristan's already done a fair bit of looking here. Maybe the 'response' can help me out.

Zwei moves into the corridor between the private offices, light provided by fancy crystal globes in elaborate brass fittings. The hall takes a sharp left turn a few doors down, presumably going towards the other section of building he saw earlier.
Little brass nameplates are present on these doors, too. The closest appear to be 'Finance Office', 'Student Board', 'Student Processing' and 'Examination Document Storage'.

Zweirugi grits his teeth as he wishes he had time to check the documents and mentally hopes Tristan makes it there or already has.

He continues. Still wary, still angry, and still as reserved as he can manage.

The sound of rapid footsteps behind Zwei changes into a ripping, skidding noise. The light at the end of the hallway from which the swordsman entered is suddenly filled by a lithe figure in loose, vaguely oriental blue clothing, accented by golden embroidery and tassels at the end of the voluminous sleeves. Its wearer is a somewhat weathered-looking man, his face a patchwork of scars, his long, dark hair streaked with grey.
The man grins wolfishly as he spots the blazing swordsman before him. "HA! About TIME I got to do something EXCITING around here! Hope you like LESSONS, intruder, but you'd best pay attention! I'll show you--"
With one fluid motion, the man draws a blade of odd, iridescent white metal.
"Oh, no. That... ah... sounds like Klavier."
"--only--"
He drops into a crouch, blade held in two hands at his side, angled towards the sword-man.
"--ONCE!"

The swordsman in blue hurtles towards Zweirugi, blade singing through the air!

"A swordsman? REALLY?! You have to be joking." He hand-free shifts his cigarette to the other side of his mouth.

Zweirugi adjusts his glasses and starts to strut towards him in impossible and dauntless manner. As he does from the corners and surfaces of the hallway blades lash out at the man repeatedly to subdue him and harry his approach. If this works that's fine, but it's the swinging leg (literally Zwei's leg being sent through the attack as a sword) that sweeps from the side to trip up the approach that's meant to hit. Zwei's trying to time the distance thus that he's on the ground a good foot out of sword-length's reach from Zweirugi.

If that fails, Zwei's going to fall back on his Nowhere Body to avoid the blow.

Zweirugi glares at the swordsman, walking with purposeful strides even as blades materialise in the hallway around his target, turning the entire bottleneck into a blender of flashing metal. The man in blue grins wide, feet blurring and carpet shredding as he flash-steps from area to area, blades shredding doors and walls to splinters in a cascade of expensive sawdust. Sparks fly as the man parries blows with his white blade, the incoming attacks getting deflected at odd angles relative to his blade's position.

"A JOKE?! I ASSURE you, intruder, swordplay is a SERIOUS art, as you shall SOON FIND OUT!" Altering his trajectory slightly in the midst of the bladestorm, the swordsman blurs towards the sword-man, blade leaving a trail of shining white afterimages behind it.

There is the briefest of silences as the blue-clade bladesman skids to a stop behind Zweirugi at the same time the cascade of attacks cease. "HA! A pity it was over so--"
The surrounding walls creak, groan, and collapse in a pile of wooden shards and shavings, revealing (presumably) the sawdust-swept interiors of the Finance, Student Board, Student Processing and Examination Storage Offices. Both Zwei and the swordsman are conspicuously unharmed.
"--...ahemhrm. WELL DODGED, intruder! But I have only just BEGUN to show off my SKILLS!"

"Please... please don't... ah... tell me he's destroyed another floor..."

[Modrageball]

Zweirugi scowls, spitting out his cigarette, it incinerates as it leaves his lips. I'm surprised my accuracy is so poor today, you're a fortunate fool given your disgrace on my 'art'.

"My turn?" He turns around and makes a firm stance, now both swords brought before him, less now for intimidation and more ready to strike. His face belies his rage.

"ASSAULT ON AN INVESTIGATOR,"

"INAPPROPRIATE USE OF MYSTIC ARMS"

"DESTRUCTION OF EVIDENCE,"

"YOUR JUDGEMENT HAS BEEN DECIDED. IMMINENT DEFENESTRATION."

Zweirugi crouches low with arms parallel above him. "Dual-" He shoots forth with a spiraling upward dual cleave to knock off balance. "Icarian-" Following with a roundhoused kick to maintain the juggle. "Stirke!" Finally completing the move with another upward dual strike to send him aerially off the property.

(Tri-Slash: Colossus Hurl (Colossus Hurl converted to Sword Magic via Sword)(Three-hits against 1, going for accuracy and distance over power and damage)(if he can get the guy out of a window, then he'll opt for that))

Zwei launches his spiralling assault, dual-cleave slamming against a solid parry from the grinning swordsman in blue. The followup is somewhat improvised by using the very same parry as a solid surface to kick off, hurling the man backwards just enough to provide a perfect wind-up to launch his foe through the wall in a sheet of flames, the sheer power of the attack shattering it in a cloud of broken wood, glass and great chunks of stonework, the entire lot sent soaring skyward. Sunlight begins to pour into the office through the wreckage of what was once the Finance Office, an impressive desk teetering percariously on the edge of the blown-out wall.

"...Mr. Zweirugi, what was that... ah.... noise?" Tristan's voice from the doll somehow seems even quieter in the aftermath. "...did Mr. Volna break something?"

A light fixture hanging by a single screw drops to the floor, shattering with a tinkling crash.

"THOUSAND"

"STEPS"

"The only thing left for him to further injure would be his pride. Find anything?"

Zwei, as he's speaking, is still in motion. He quickly moves three steps further down the corridor, sheathes his blade and readies himself for a cross-counter attack towards where he was standing. He's got a prime hunch he's hearing the other swordsman returning, as it sounds like an announced attack, but focuses his senses all about him as he's well in dangerous territory. He's planning to hit this guy not after but AS he returns.

"FROM"

Somewhere amidst the backdrop of airborne rubble, a blurred silhouette hoves into view, feet pressed firmly against the chunk of stone lazily arcing away from the building.

"HEAVEN!"

Pushing off from the wreckage and sending it spinning off into another part of the offices, the swordsman gives a mighty leap, and--
--vanishes from sight as he overshoots the gaping hole, passing on over the roof.

"I'm... I'm in the... ah... main staff building, at the entrance to the... ah... senior staff tower." Tristan's voice is barely audible, the tinny sound at the volume of a whisper. "There's no sign of... ah... movement yet, but if... if you make enough of a disturbance-- a... a non-lethal one... you may draw them away from their... ah... offices. I may be able to find something relating to all of this in the... ah... Head of Student Welfare's office, but it would take a considerable event to have more than one of the Heads investigate an... ah... issue. Would that be... ah... possible?"

"METEOR WHEEL!"

The roof above Zwei explodes in an eruption of green tile, stone and wood. The swordsman in blue, Klavier Volna, is a whirling dervish amidst a shining ring of motion, flickering images of the white blade barely visible to the naked eye. Rich emerald carpet flies to shreds and floorboards tear to sawdust as the man streaks forward in a circular blaze of motion, far faster than expected.
The opposing fighters blades clash together with a resounding clang as Zwei parries the blow, stopping the sword from even coming close to touching him.
Which is why he finds himself considerably preturbed that a neat series of slashes open up on his body along the same arc, dealing the sword-man minor damage. Kalvier grins, a slash on his own brow having painted half his face with a sheet of red and forcing him into a jaunty wink.
"SO, the intruder has SKILLS himself! EXCELLENT! And the CALLING of one's TECHNIQUES! Brings me BACK to the DOJO DAYS! HAVE AT YOU!"

Zweirugi inhales a long, deep breath reflecting on his actual physical lack of nerves. Deeper in his thoughts he's at odds between finishing the fight, and grabbing another smoke. His patience on the line here and his farce still underway, his choices become obvious.

"Denial of verdict, PROCEED TO TERMINATION."

Zweirugi dashes at his foe, mouth in a calm roar, "Rot Shi, Schwarz Kaze" He makes one clean cut as the momentum carries him past. One clean cut with the entire brunt of his namesake blade channeled into a slice specifically dedicated to kill a man.

(Human-Slaying Slash. Zwei's trying to tag him with all status effects he can, opting for lockdown minors, Mystic Seal, Turned To Shadow. He's riding the swords ability to ignore all resists/immunities if this guy is below level 60)

Klavier's grin turns grim as Zweirugi bears down on him. The swordsman flicks his white blade into a different grip, plunging it into the tattered carpet in the face of impending doom.
"CURSE SPLITT--"

The Sword of Vashna hits the white blade, clashing against not one, but a multitude, each different, yet occupying the same space. Only not. Zwei has little time to ponder this, however, as his momentum carries him on forwards and past the opposing swordsmen. Sparks, blood, and a shattering, coruscating aura explode outwards from the contact.

Klavier fades in and out of view, half-caught between being a shadow and being solid, a flickering, fizzing array of mystic lines and symbols sputtering over his form, apparently rendering him immobile for now. Patches of floor fade to insubstantial blackness and jitter back into solidity, holes gaping and being tied back together in an incomplete form by half-made sealing circles. A roaring, tearing rush of noise heralds a chunk of wall, roof and floor giving up on maintaining its relationship with the rest of the structure, jagged lines of shadow puffing into nothingness around and across them. Filing cabinets cascade into the sunny courtyard below, spewing blizzards of paper.

Zweirugi frowns, "I'm not sure what you pulled, but let's have no more of that. This would be easier if you STOPPED THIS FUTILE RESISTANCE!"

His face become a wicked smile as he draws his infinity-marked blade and brings both down in an X-cut on the man. Once again going for a kill, but this time opting for more on the side of caution, Zweirugi wells up his mana to counteract his prey's defenses. He combines this dis-buffing nature into that of his blade's.

(Greater Erasure Slash: Sanguine Glee)

Zweirugi draws his second blade, surging forwards into a dual X-strike! Klavier attempts to bring his blade around to block once more, but the sputtering seals lock him in position, even as the sword falls from his grasp turned insubstantial from its shadow-transformation. The blades bite deeply into the man's silhouette-form, scything through protective effects and leaving deep gashes that nearly quarter his body, something solid getting clipped by a blade's edge and skittering off under a desk.

Relative silence descends upon the ruined office as the swordsman falls, still shadowy and covered in flickering fragments of warding circle. Irregular cracks of shadow continue to twist and play around the room, occasionally causing a chunk or wall or ceiling to drop as they form closed sections, the broken pieces of seal insufficient to prevent their collapse.

Zweirugi instinctingly reaches for a cig and lights it on his hair (which is notably, still on fire). His tone becomes rather solemn as heads over to the felled foe and plants his balde in the man's chest, kneels, and closes his eyes.

"I wish this man resotred to whole vitality with his conciousness lost until I depart this world," Zweirugi calmly states as energy flows out from the sword. He swiftly pulls it out and after flicking off the gore, sucks it back into his form.

He's going to take the man's sword (and scabbard for it, if present) with a grim smile. He can prove to me another time when he thinks he's worthy of this blade. Or any for that matter. He unwraps the bundle he has on his back, whispers and complaints from the hungering blade pouring out, and places the new blade in there, re-sealing it hastily.

Slinging the bundled blades back on, wiping his other blade off on the shredded carpet and re-drawing his own sword, he affirms his readiness and visage before continuing on with his 'godly investigative rampage', giving a yell of rage to get himself back 'into character'. Tromping down the hall, Zweirugi makes his way onward towards the dome.

Zwei draws a cigarette, stabbing the corpse with his sword and intoning his wish. Upon drawing the blade back out, the wound left behind closes, the body shifting from its half-shadow composition back to a more solid form, the scars from the previous fight fading with the malign darkness-effect.
From his kneeling position, the swordsman gets a better look at the thing that fell under the desk earlier. It appears to be a metal scroll case, bound in silver.

Having done what he needed to to, Zwei appropriates Klavier's sword. It's a slightly unusual example, to be sure.
He gets:
Fine Procina Blade- (Weapon, Sword, Metal & Spatial, 50,000,000 Gold) +50,000 Melee Attack, 160% To Hit, 60% Critical, Weilder may re-roll missed attacks a number of times equal to the number of individuals in battle, to a maximum of 200, weilder counts as weilding a number of additional swords equal to the number of individuals in battle, to a maximum of 100, with this weapon gaining an additional +5% To Hit and +5% Critical for every ten additional swords weilder counts as having equipped from this weapon's effect

Zweirugi, raising and eyebrow, will grab the tube. He'll pocket it in the Bandolier for later reading though.

Given it'll likely be recognized and prone to provoking (even more) enmity, he bundles the new sword as declared and heads on. Though now stifling a smile at his new claim as he resumes the act of NISCHWERT!

The swordsman, with a grin, continues his interrupted advance into the depths of the building, passing the wreckage of the ruined offices on his way.

"...Mr. Zweirugi, I don't know what it was that you... ah... did, but you appear to have prompted the Head of Student Welfare to exit his office."

A brief pause, interrupted by the sound of falling masonry from somewhere behind.

"...and the Head of Exorcism. And the Head of... ah... Spiritual Arts. And the Head of Binding. ...ah... it may be a wise idea to retreat. As fast as is physically possible."

"Here we go. Make haste."

Zwei, hair and wings already aflame, puts his swords at a lowered angle.

"Let them come."

Zwei stands ready, blazing hair and wings scorching the cracking walls, swords poised to attack.

"Found him."
What was almost certainly just a shadow cast by the fracturing ceiling's shifted form now appears to be a face.
"Found him."
The scattered ashes and burned paperwork underfoot similarly hold a pattern that, from the right angle, could be considered face-like, the expression sly and dangerous.
"Iiiihihihiihii."
The shadow-face drops from the ceiling, a body emerging after it, vaguely humanoid in an amorphous sort of fashion. Its eyes are mere ashen cracks in its visage, its mouth a wide, wide crack curving up and around and vanishing along the sides and behind its head.
"Uuuuhuhuhuuhuu."
The ashes swirl, forming a similar body of gritty-grey, this figure's eyes wide, black holes, its mouth a smiling, gaping black gash in its face, the darkness suggesting it extends far deeper as a hole than is physically possible for the creature's form.

"My, my, my. So you have."
The voice sounds rather like someone's genial grandmother, warm and wobbling with age. Zwei turns around to face the source.

No, wait. No he doesn't. The floor turned him around to face it?

And when did he get here?

The swordsman finds himself in a great, shining dome of lapis and ivory, filigree-fine lacework of precious blue stone soaring across the ceiling in patterns reminiscent of a cloudy sky. Four statues, each immaculately formed yet somehow maddeningly vague in features, stand at four equidistant points around the border, each holding a faint sphere of light, each embedded firmly in the grassy floor (which, Zwei notes, seems to be rippling and waving despite the still air). Quiet tones drift over the scene, reminiscent of a muted pipe organ inside an echo chamber.

Zwei feels a curious lassitude wash over him.

The source of the voice does indeed look like someone's little old grandmother. Sitting in a comfortable armchair (complete, oh dear, yes, with lace doilies) and covered in a small mountain of shawls is a little old woman, wearing a red-and-white cross between a robe and a simple dress, her hair caught up in a neat bun fastened with... yes, those are long hairpins, protuding slightly in an almost antennae-like fashion. Eyes squinted shut and mouth a wide, wide smile amidst the mass of wrinkles, the little old lady looks completely unconcerned about her surroundings, the flaming form of the swordsman before her, and the amorphous nightmares flanking him.

"My, my, my. Such a naughty boy. I think we will be having a nice, long chat about the whos and the hows and the whys, shan't we?" The smile widens further.
"Naughty boy."
"Naughty boy."
"Iiiihihihiihii."
"Uuuuhuhuhuuhuu."

"Just so long as there is- hem- enough left of this intruder after your chat to find out about these 'whos, hows and whys'." A tall, thin man in grey robes, eboshi and a red scarf steps out from behind one of the statues, holding a length of green cord in his hands. "Someone has to be answerable for all this -hem, hem- destruction. Not to mention the issue with -hem- Klavier."

A sharp series of popping sounds interrupts the end of the man's speech. Emerging from behind another of the statues, a burly, shaven-headed giant of a man steps out, wrenching his knuckles this way and that, his grey robes hanging off his shoulders like a cape and fluttering around his white under-robe. "Impatient idiot knew what he was getting himself into." crack. "Or maybe he didn't. Spirit Hunters are all the same. Jump first, regret later." crack. "And this one will be doing enough regretting to fill a jump from the Moons." crack. The man grins savagely at Zwei.

"My, my, my, such enthusiasm as always. Now, my naughty boy, let's start with your name, shall we, and why you're here." The little old lady chuckles. "And no lying to grandma, now. Grandma knows if naughty boys lie, oh my yes."
"Grandma knows."
"Grandma knows."
"Iiiihihihiihii."
"Uuuuhuhuhuuhuu."

Zwei retracts his wings, sheathing one blade and sucking his into his body through his hand. His hair smolders back to an stark white and he takes a long draw on his cigarette.

"I see, the prophetic wisdom was correct about three encounters. Binding, Spiritual Arts, and Exorcism I presume? You guys sure know how to make an entrance."

He stances his feet apart, rolls his shoulders back, one hand to his face and the other out wide to gesture with his cigarette as he initiates his rant, "Let me tell you some facts then, since last I checked, I wasn't naughty nor a boy. I am a tool with snark bearing a mission of justice meant for practice of finesse. Given you lot are mere heads and not actually the headmaster, I have reason to assume any of you could be involved in the plot of missing persons. I'm an anomaly summoned by that outcry of demand to right the wrongs and am only present because of thus."

He spins on heel and shifts his arms, one pointing to the elbow of the other and the other pointing palm-up to the knuckle-cracker, "My damage was minimal compared to Klavier's swath, his art as a swordsman belongs on the fields of war, not in any sort of structure. I have punished his ignorance but returned his life to him firsthand."

He twirls the cigarette back to his mouth and glares to the granny, "And to finish your interrogation and answer your most trivial question, my name I used here is a fabrication and unimportant, since the name I use regularly is also not the name I truly am, since in the basest of all forms, I have no name that is my own, but a designation."

The old woman opposite Zwei chuckles. "My, my, my, a boy with such a grandiose turn of phrase. And such a fascinating form, too. Certainly not a spirit, despite having so many similarities that I could name." Her face crinkles into a smile again.
"She could."
"She could."
"Iiiihihihiihii."
"Uuuuhuhuhuuhuu."
She leans forward in her chair, apparently amused at Zwei's posturing.
"My, my. And on a mission of justice to right wrongs, too. Whose justice and whose demand might you be here to answer and correct, dear? We can't be having with people simply barging in to such a restricted institution with such violence, now, can we?"
The grass ripples flows in waves expanding from the armchair, the air still remaining as calm as before.
"We can't."
"We can't."
"Iiiihihihiihii."
"Uuuuhuhuhuuhuu."

The burly exorcist shrugs, eliciting a crack from his shoulders. "This tool will tell us who's holding his handle while he's at it. Anyone stupid enough to call in one of the Association to do this will need a good" crack "solid" crack "beating to get their mistake hammered into their thick skull."

"Ahem. That is, of course -hem- assuming he is from the Association." The thin man cocks his head as he examines Zwei. "There are many -hem, hem- other possibilities, each requiring their own -hem- punishments. For all parties involved."

The airy dome seems to grow slightly darker.

"My, my, indeed. Although I rather have an inkling of what all this is about, oh my yes."
"She does."
"She does."
"Iiiihihihiihii."
"Uuuuhuhuhuuhuu."

Zweirugi's eyes flare for a moment. While he keeps his calm demeanor, breathless except for his cigarette's sake, it is clear that he's losing his cool.

"You seem to have ENTIRELY missed a primary point. I am refusing to state my detailed intentions to any of you three without express permission of the owner of this establishment. Given the roots of this corruption, I cannot afford leaks to those such as yourselves. You must only know that my master bid I cross the barrier to this world and I'm here for the sake of those missing."

"FURTHERMORE-," His face distorts in rages as he swivels to direct an accusatory finger at the lady, the wings on his back flaring momentarily as though emergency heat sinks as he pauses for a drag before continuing, "you can claim my violence and make me to be the bad guy all you want, but other than investigative intimidation and self defense I've brought harm to no one. If you have no factual grounds to detain me on and are not going to bring the headmaster to me, I've only reason to assume you are culprits."

"My, my, my, so spirited." The old woman's face remains locked in its cheerful crinkle. "But I am afraid that you, yourself have rather missed the point, dear."
The smile remains, but the eyes open, leveling a surprisingly forceful glare at Zweirugi. "You have broken into an institution barred to all but members of the Great Houses of the Order and those expressely permitted by the aforementioned, intimidated staff, instigated a great deal of property damage and placed both faculty and students in danger, all while claiming some righteous crusade pertaining to some ill-defined 'corruption', and, weapons drawn, demanded to see the Headmistress. Given her position and workload, we, as Department Heads, are fully within our rights to speak for her, as well as intercept and deal with appointments, dear, to say nothing of unscehduled, unauthorised, violently-inclined ones who may well have been hired to bring harm to her, our staff, or students, oh my yes. You are rather a clear and present threat to school, and as such we have no intention of letting you anywhere near the Headmistress or students, goodness me no."
"You are."
"You are."
"Iiiihihihiihii."
"Uuuuhuhuhuuhuu."

The thin man has, during the exchange, woven his cord into a complicated knot. "Ahem. Furthermore, matters pertaining to certain -hem- delicate situations such as missing persons are strictly confidential and to be handled internally, to prevent -hem, hem- outside sources from learning of them, capitalising on them, and -hem- using them to bring harm to the student body, politically damage the standing of the Houses, or using them for other -hem- nefarious deeds." He pulls the ends of the cord tight, the knot glowing intensely green. "That you are presently -hem- rampaging around the premesis in such a -hem, hem- blatant manner leads me to conclude that, if you are indeed related to such events and not simply an assassin, you are either a violent thug bent on contributing to any existing problems, a -hem- very poor investigator hired by either a phenomenally misguided individual or someone wishing to bring -hem, hem- harm to the name of this establishment and, by extension, the Great House Clavis, or--" his eyes narrow. "--a distraction." His head whips towards the burly, bald exorcist, whose expression abruptly changes to one of fury.

A massive hand grabs a sheaf of paper talismans from within a sleeve, the other extracting one that looks rather similar to Zwei's. "BONITA!" The resulting roar bounces off the walls, drowning out the organ-echoes and actually causing the grass at his feet to bend away from him. "OFFICES! NOW!"

(To confirm, papers as in Zwei's entry papers or the paper man he has from his employer?)

(Paper man)

[Modrageball]

"Ora~aaa? Bureaucracy before morality I see? I think I know where this leads-," he snaps his fingers, incinerating his cigarette. He rasps softly, "I wish to be able to act unhindered for the duration of my time in this world."

He twirls in spot lithely, despite his god armor, hovering him into the air as he draws a pair of blades and ignites his hair. His back erupts into wings; given their the essentially the materialization of his fury, more fury clearly means more wings! Two sets of wings appear as his form seems to slip in and out of reality. The large silver-flamed Kris flares brightly as it grants his wish.

"What are these HOUSES?! What are these ASSUMPTIONS?! Your pretenses and facades mean NOTHING AT ALL TO THOSE IN PERIL! ZIP! ZERO! ZILCH! NADA! LET ME SHOW YOU TRUE PERIL AS I, ZWEIRUGI, WILL KNOCK YOU ALL DOWN!"

Zweirugi whirls, hovering in midair as he draws his blades, igniting as he floats.
A bell-like tone sounds, the dome above darkening further. His swords suddenly seem to multiply in weight, dropping sharply in his grip. A second, distorted tone rings out, the Sword of Vashna shuddering as its wish is opposed by another force.
"My, my. We can't be having that. None may fight within the Sanctum of Peace without its master's approval, goodness me no."
The Sword's flames gutter slightly as the thrashing of the grass intensifies, as if caught in a great storm. The blade's shuddering intensifies.
"My, my, my. You surely can't mean to say you would let a threatening intruder approach your own master unhindered, dear? Rather a dereliction of duty, wouldn't you agree?"
"Dereliction."
"Dereliction."
"Iiiihihihiihii."
"Uuuuhuhuhuuhuu."
"And such poor manners." the old woman continues, smiling mouth and unsmiling eyes unchanged. "The Great Houses are everything. They stand atop this world as rulers and protectors, guiding humanity to shining futures and sheltering them from those that would bring them harm, oh my yes. The children of the Houses are this world's future and most precious treasures. As their teachers and guardians, we would be terribly remiss to allow one such as you to continue wreaking havoc in such hallowed halls, oh my yes."
"Remiss."
The shadow with the ash-grey features is suddenly much, much closer to Zwei than he remembered it being.
"Remiss."
The ash-grey shadow with the gaping holes-as-eyes is at his other side, cavernous mouth set in a wide, empty smile.
"Iiiihihihiihii."
"Uuuuhuhuhuuhuu."

The thin man holds out his knotted cord and pulls, causing it to flare even brighter. A chain of green light manifests around Zwei, constricting rapidly and hitting a fluctuating barrier centred on the Sword, crackling sparks of energy and furiously-buzzing force arcing around the perimeter. Whatever effect his wish is having, it's barely holding off the surrounding force, his movement already feeling significantly restricted.

THWAP.

A paper talisman hits Zwei squarely on the forehead, causing his back to erupt in a rush of flame. Great quantities of mana blast forth, arcing and whiringl across and around the swordsman, braiding into flickering strands and ripping away into nothingness. The huge exorcist pulls another from his sheaf of paper strips, lips moving rapidly as he prepares to throw it. Zwei begins to feel as if his strength is being sucked out of him along with the flames.

"Tch. You've tipped your hand, you'd have me destroying myself if you hadn't told me that."

It looks like I'm going to have to abandon any attempt to fight these three entirely. Fine. I'll just have to focus on leaving intact then.

Sword-Vashna will stagger and kneel to absorb his namesake back into his form. (If it's within reach.) His free-hand will land on his other sword touching the blade but will not pick it up just yet. With his minor control of fire and given his being on fire from his head already, he spreads it over his entire form. Not only for dramatic action, but he hopes his regen can weather the burning while the fire can remove paper stuck to him. He doesn't face the others and doesn't move to look to attack them.

Zweirugi smiles twistedly, a grin that reminiscent of his master. This. This is what he meant when he mentioned the defiant blood still runs. Not leaving his position Zweirugi speaks softly, "I wish seven-fold further to be able to act unhindered for the duration of my time in this world."

Zwei internalises his blade-self and utters his wish. The air shimmers and trembles. Three of the wishes blow outwards and are immediately, and in turn, constricted by the green spirit-chain, shattering as their mana is crushed in its grip. The desire for freedom is stated further, and with it, more wishes add their arcane energy to the warring clash of mystic force, shaking the ground and sending violent arcs of magical and spiritual energy to crash against the floor, the walls, the statues in the Sanctum's corners.
The chain shatters with a resounding blast of force, the thin man's cord erupting into flame and emerald ash.

The sword-man bursts into flames, the paper talisman on his forehead suffering a similar, but far more violent fate than the cord. Searing sheets of flame erupt from it, blasting Zwei backwards and charring the grass black.
It takes but a moment for Zwei to get back to his feet, but that moment is all that is required for the burly exorcist to cross the distance and execute an open-palm strike to Zwei's torso, the blow sending ripples of shearing force through his body. At the same time, strands of light flick out from behind the man and punch through with the blow, filling the rush of pain with an unpleasant prickling sensation. The old woman smiles wide.
Zwei feels like something important just came loose, taking moderate SPI damage. He further gets the impression that regenerating it would be difficult.

Stumbling backwards, the swordsman finds himself blundering into a cloud of ash.
Except clouds of ash typically don't have eyes.
"Mine."
"Mine."
Oh dear.
"Iiiihihihiihii."
"Uuuuhuhuhuuhuu."
Ash and shadow scour his body, getting in his eyes, his nose, his mouth, tearing at exposed flesh and ripping into his armour. Zwei is hit with Suffocation and takes only minor damage thanks to his regeneration.

(While I'm still stuck thinking what's actually worth trying here, does Zwei see an exit?)

(Not an obvious one. The dome looks fairly unbroken and the only thing around the walls are the four statues. It's also, notably, much larger than the corridor Zwei was in previously, so shenanigans are clearly afoot)

Zweirugi runs down his options in his head. Cursing as somehow almost all of his primary skills and talents at his disposal keep coming up short, drastically so. He glances quick and lets loose a long breath, wishing his lifeless lips held another infinity stick at this point.

I guess this calls for something even moreso reckless

With his empty hand he's going to pull free his scabbard and holding it by such, try to scoop up his sword he was disarmed of earlier. With the Sword of Vashna he's going to twirl it about in his grip as he spins on heel and plunges the blade into his chest. The force of the blow seeming to impossibly launch him into the air as (some of) his wounds appear to forge themselves back together.
(Tri-slash: Colossus Hurl: Self (Heals HP, converted to Sword Arts via Sword))

With the sword still in his chest he's going to attempt to use the other two 'slashes' to defensively reopistion himself through the air in response to his opponents' attacks.

Zwei pulls out his scabbard, grabs his sword and, to the incredulity of all present, stabs himself with great force. The impact of the blow, in blind violation of physics and common sense, sends him cannoning upwards and backwards, blowing the spirits surrounding him aside and pulling free from the immediate vicinity of battle.
His throw worked perhaps a little too well, he reflects, as he finds his flight arrested by the side of the dome, the sword through his chest pinning him to the curved surface of the lapis-and-ivory roof and affording him a lovely view of the grassy floor below. The statues, it seems, are set slightly in front of the dome's wall to allow space for them to stand, a curved, arch-like outline of solid ivory behind each. Or at least that's what he can infer from the closest example.

The burly exorcist scowls, pulling another paper talisman from his stack and whipping it towards Zwei, who is able to parry the incoming problem with his off-hand. The binder, having lost his cord, instead pulls something red out of his sleeve, unfolding it into an origami crane. The crane pops into form, spitting out two more squares of red paper, which in turn pop into the form of origami cranes, which split out two more pieces of paper, which in turn pop into origami cranes...
The old woman, still smiling, makes a twisting gesture. Intense pain fills Zwei's gut as something begins tearing at his pattern from inside, dealing minor SPI damage. A circular light-pattern of geometric symbols, bordered with odd script swirls around the armchair, hovering a foot from the ground and slowly rotating with a ringing chime.
The darkness-and-ash spirits swirl in a cloud, pulling themselves back together from where they were knocked about.

Barely audible over the ambient echo-organ and sounds of battle, a familiar crackle issues from under Zwei's bandolier.
"krshk--irugi? Hello? Di--crkclsh--age to escape?"

(I *think* Zwei is still on fire? Notably with all the paper around.)

Zwei says aloud, likely to the confusion of his oppressors, "Nope, but I think it's high time to."

Zwei will absorb himself into himself and re-materialize it in his hand. He thinks deeply. Where is Tristan?! He's not making enough noise so I can tell where he is. I can't count on anything in the swath I left to be where I left it. The shadow degreda-

KLAVIER! YES! He should be still an identifiable target since I restored him!

"Time to give you all some peace? Yeah. I ain't waitin' for a thousand cranes." He rips the Bee-cutting Knife from his Bandolier with his mouth. He crosses his blades, one forearm in front of his forehead and blade down with the other fist in front of his chin and blade horizontal. His smile fueled by rage with a lingering madness, his wings wrap around him as he begins a spiraling charge. With a swirling descent he charges the thinner man with a dual swing meant to kill, he feints the entire attack twisting to toss his sword at the old lady. A feint in turn as he's surfing on his sword, his target not the hag either, but Klavier!

(Throw Sword/Space-Cutting Slash: Ride Into Battle on a Sword: Klavier (Heals MP, targeting him as though in "Another battlespace" via Sword of Vashna))

(Zwei is, indeed, still on fire)

Zwei, blades dancing in the air, plunges straight towards the binder, swerving at the last minute towards the old lady in the armchair. A blazingly-bright multi-layered shield composed of a dizzying array of spiritual magic circles interposes itself between the swordsman and his supposed target, but just before he hits, the familiar twisting, wrenching sensation of forcing himself through space to somewhere else takes hold, the blue-white dome with the grassy floor swirling and draining away into a telescopic blur.

Light once again floods Zwei's vision as his blade impacts the familiar prone form of Klavier, still out for the count and sprawled amidst the wreckage of the empty administration offices. Distant sounds of panic can be heard drifting from the kicked-open double doors leading downstairs.

pcht.

"--you there? Mr. Zweirugi? Are you... ah... safe?" Tristan's voice, somewhat clearer, comes from the paper doll. The exorcist sounds rather out of breath.

Zweirugi smiles, glad to see that work; going into the book as the 'Klavier Cleave'.

Immediately, Zweirugi flicks out an Infinity Stick and by merely placing it in his mouth, causes its ignition for a long drag. He uses his basic manipulation of fire he will extinguish his body. He plunges his sword back into his form.

"I'm out of their trap. I hope you're working fast, cause I've lost my momentum and am now making a chase of this. I'm going to be down to only a few trumps here in a moment."

He quietly whispers, so as to avoid Tristan hearing. "I wish to purge any currently lingering magical effects from myself from sources other than myself that I have received in the last ten minutes."

pcht.

"I had to... ah... leave the offices abruptly, as the Head of Student Welfare returned." Tristan's voice bounces as if the speaker is running. "I was... ah... fortunate in that I overhead the Head of Exorcism's order for him to... ah... return, thus allowing me time to make my escape." The voice sounds worried. "I think I managed to... ah... escape, but I found something of concern. The Head of Student Welfare had the... ah... status talismans for the missing students in his desk, along with a series of reports stating that they had entered the... ah... Old City through a ventilation shaft. How they gained access when most of them are collapsed is... ah, I digress. Given the dangers of the Old City, I would expect some... ah... difficulty in retrieving them, but to take this long..." Tristain breathes heavily for a moment, catching his breath.
"I could see the... ah... recent restrictions on leaving campus interfering with the senior staff's ability to leave, especially in light of the recent attack requiring their presence to maintain the Academy's defenses, but a matter of such... ah... importance... I didn't have time to look for plans regarding their rescue... Master Molen's talisman said he was petrified, Mister Zweirugi! And Master Curro has a broken leg! They're still alive! I just..."
The exorcist's fragmented train of thought pauses for a while.
"I... I need your help to rescue them, Mister Zweirugi. I... ah... know someone in the city who might have a map of the Old City if you need one, and I might be able to route a simple... ah... proximity-detection spell through the communication charm to locate them, but that place is extremely dangerous and likely heavily warded. I don't know how much... ah... help I can be to you if you enter it."

pcht. pcht.

Zwei intones his wish. He feels something fracture and fragment off him as a variety of hidden and unnoticed effects shatter, but the sensation of a block being placed on his earlier SPI loss from the tandem attack from the old woman and muscular exorcist remains like an impassable wall.

"Let's do it then, cast your proximity spell once I'm there, right now I need a fast route there."

Zweirugi sheathes all but his main blade and with a winged flip takes off.

"Really fast."

"The fastest way to get to my... ah.. acquaintance who may have a map would be to head to the north side of the city's central layer. He owns a small store beside his house on Rose Lane, Chart's Antiquities, near the Church of the Absent Goddess. It's near the edge, past the park with the... ah... rose trees." Tristain clears his throat nervously. "The... ah... door to the Old City can be found near the central eastmost edge of the lower layer, but it has been sealed for... ah... centuries. Perhaps if you found a ventilation shaft like the children did... those should be carved into the cliff walls here and there, but the... ah... age and lack of maintenance might make finding them difficult without a map."

pcht. pcht.

Zwei sheathes his blades and blasts off through the hole in the ceiling, trailing flames.

pcht. pcht. pcht.

As he does so, he finally locates the source of that noise. Red paper cranes tumble end over end, his eruptive flight finally dislodging the one wedged in one of his straps from what must have been a significantly skilled act of ledgerdemain on the part of the binder during his feint from earlier. The swarm of cranes takes flight, flapping after the sword(s)man as he soars above the shining, sprawling buildings of the Academy, glassy green-tiled rooftops and gilded domes glistening in the noonday sun atop architecture with hints of gothic design in white stone.
The Academy is expansive, containing many buildings, gardens, paved areas with complicated circular diagrams, assembly squares and wide swathes of grassy emptiness, all surrounded by thick, high walls. And, as he discovers, less obvious defenses.
Zweirugi collides with an invisible barrier, yellow magical square-within-circle designs blazing to life around him as his momentum hammers him into the wall. Three more spring into being ahead of Zwei, each larger and more complex than the last.
Perhaps it is due to his sevenfold wish earlier. Perhaps, instead, the wards were ill set up. Whatever the cause, the flaming form of Zwei punches through the defensive spiritual formation, shards of radiant force and deafening blasts of discharged magic grounding themselves in his body as he passes through, dealing moderate SPI damage and heavy-moderate damage his armour fights to regenerate.

Cartwheeling from the broken aperture, Zwei soars erratically into the air above a large expanse of beautifully-sculpted countryside, mansion-estates of green and white stone peppering the idyllic hills and dales, connected by wide, white roads that wend their way between sparkling lakes and attractive groups of trees. A larger building, tall and palatial, dominates the centre of the landscape, its forest of gilded spires dwarfed by a huge tripartite tower of green and gold, three great spires of jade threaded with gold crowning the structure, flashing back the sun and reflecting the sky on their mirror-smooth surfaces. From his vantage point, Zwei can also make out the tall wall acting as a perimeter to the land, forming a vaguely circular border.

(Uh, I need to check then, are the cranes still there? Or did they just fly somewhere?)

I guess these ones aren't flammable. Zwei feels his unending symbol kicking in to revitalize him. He takes a deep breath as his amulet focuses his actions.

"I need better directions and fast, can you do fast? I'm skipping the map, I don't have that time. I'm above the green and white estates and cannot see any cliffs at all. I still have them chasing me with spells. I'm heading at my best guess of east."

Given their attempts to chase him out this far and his vague SPI damage, Zwei's going to keep getting the heck outta dodge. He grabs his cig and traces a smokey circle in the air around himself. He's going to use the cigarette's ability to teleport himself somewhere vaguely in his guess of east within sight and on the ground, banking on the cigarette's restriction of only effecting the user to 'cleanse' remaining cranes from himself.

The cranes, now Zwei isn't being cannoned through an angrily-fracturing spirit-barrier and has time to take stock of the situation, seem to be experiencing similar issues as he did, several of them puffing into ash in their attempts to follow him. As he watches, a couple manage to make it through, popping out another pair each and fluttering erratically in the wind. The brief break allows him to gauge that his SPI is likely at about 70-75% of its maximum value after the hits he took facing the Heads and the barrier.

Tracing a circle about him with his cigarette, the swordsman puffs into wisps of smoke, abruptly reappearing in a similar cloud on a small hill next to the perimeter wall of the countryside, blessedly crane-free and next to a very surprised pair of deer tangled in each others' antlers. The wall itself is an impressive construction, several stories high and made of huge slabs of white stone, evidently old but kept in immaculate condition.

"You're on the... ah... House Layer, Mister Zweirugi. The top layer of Clavia." Tristan's voice explains from the doll's position in the swordsman's bandolier. "The city has three layers, and is built over a chasm. The sealed entrance to the Old City will be reachable from the lowest layer, somewhere below the main bridge from the eastern edge of the Mercantile Layer- the one level with the top of the chasm. From what I read in those... ah... documents, there should be some ancient structures built into the sides of the cliff to allow air into the Old City. For someone capable of... ah... flight, you should have little issue in reaching them, although finding one that hasn't... ah... collapsed would be the issue."

Zwei is going to fly low and fast, staying near the outer limits. He's looking for an easily accessible way down without drawing too much attention.

From what he can see, the wall pretty much encompasses the entire border of the House Layer, although there are some areas where trees and woodland have grown up next to the inside of the wall and on hills. There's still a good few metres of bare wall between the treetops and the top of the wall in the best case, however.

(This setup is likely just skewing my perspective, but is this wall the divider between the House Layer and Mercantile Layer or Clavia and the outside? The way I'm reading this with regards to prepositions is that Zweirugi needs to find a tunnel down to the mercantile layer, then find a cliff there to drop down further to the Old city.)

(Think a Nexus or Midgar-like arrangement. The House Layer is suspended above the larger Mercantile Layer by several hundred feet. It has a wall around its border. The only official exit is via the Jade Gate, which would be heavily guarded)

[Modrageball]

(Right, so in a directional sense I do need to find down, not out.)

Zweirugi will keep skirting the border to find a good and less-traveled path downward.

A rapid circuit of the disc of countryside proves that the wall surrounds it, with the only obvious way out being through a huge gate of carved jade, heavily-manned by guards. It seems his best bet of getting out of the House Layer would be to find an unobtrusive patch of woodland by the wall and rapidly fly from the treetops over the edge of the wall and down.

(Gah, didn't realize I could hop over and around on down.)

He's going to find a spot that might be less so covered by foliage, but he's ideally aiming for one that appears less inhabited nearby. With a swift scissors maneuver he's going to flip over the wall and plummet down.

Zwei succeeds in finding an area well-secluded from the extravagant estates and executes a quick flip up and over to freedom.

The swordsman hurtles down the outside of the wall, past the thick bottom layer supporting the idyllic countryside above, and soon finds himself freefalling in massively open space, face-to-inverted-face with a massive, shining silver-plated statue, its surface etched with intricate, tesselating patterns of various winged insects, looming above the spreading cityscape of what is presumably the Mercantile Layer hundreds of feet below. The statue itself is flanked by two equally massive others, difficult to make out from the swordsman's current perspective, all apparently part of a gigantic central support for the House Layer above. Smaller, but still massive pillars panelled in marble and relief-carved jade pierce the city from the layer above at regular intervals, reinforcing and upholding the House Layer's lofty position.

The city below (from what Zwei can see) holds many wide roads and avenues, a great many large parks, lakes and other green spaces, and a huge number of white-stone buildings with rooftops of various colours, predominantly green. Curiously, it appears to be built on some sort of wide latticework of huge bridges, as regular holes are clearly visible in the surface, revealing another huge drop to more rooftops below.
Far off to his left and right, the city reaches an edge, a gap opening between it and the land beyond, a network of bridges around a huge central bridge acting as a connection at each end. Twisting around, the gap yawns beyond the far edge of the city, revealing its position straddling the mouth of a great chasm in the earth, its depths cast into mist and shadow.

Zweirugi is going to veer, dive, and careen into canyon as distressing speed. He pulls out of the drop once below the top of the cliffs.

He will begin doing a lap of the chasm looking to see if he can find the entrance. He'll stay towards the inner wall to decrease the chance he's seen by a fraction.

Zwei plunges down into the Mercantile Layer, plummeting faster than most can follow. He zips through an opening in one of the more gap-filled bridge-latticework areas of the city, surrounded on all sides by the backs of warehouses, with little danger of being seen. Below the network of bridges and city-platforms, another layer of bridgework-cityscape presents itself, this one rather darker than the one above, more cramped and filled with more residential-looking buildings and narrower streets. It sprawls out below the canopy of bridges and platforms that support the upper layers, the great pillars from above continuing from above to fix the undercity in place. The place is curiously reminiscent of a deep ancient forest, of vast trunks supporting a thick ceiling of leaves, dappled rays of light illuminating the stunted undergrowth.
From what Zwei can gather, this layer's also larger than the Mercantile Layer above, extending almost fully to the sides of the chasm walls. One side seems to have less in the way of buildings near the edge, however, the chasm wall partially carved, partially crumbled in some form of--
"Gyaaaaaaaaaah!"
Zwei's train of thought is abruptly derailed by a scream and a shrill, warbling whistle-blast from a redheaded girl on a red-winged hang-glider, with whom the swordsman has just avoided colliding with by scant inches. Recovering magnificently under the circumstances, the girl pulls into a tight circle to avoid further risk of collision or crashing out of control.
"That-- you-- what do you think you're doing?!"

(I'm half expecting a large caravan of ships . . . hahaha)

"I'm flying, is there a problem officer?" Zweirugi crosses his arms and smirks as he barrel rolls around to the other side with ease to display his maneuverability and making complete mockery of his actual weight.

"Tch. However, despite my rather terrible mood, there are kids are in trouble in the Old City. I will graciously overlook your rude outburst if you can help me find the secret entrance into there so that they may be saved." He flies out in front of her, flying backward arms still crossed at a speed that keep them from colliding as he stares at her.

(This is under the assumption that Zwei flies at the speed of his fury . . . )

The girl looks extremely frustrated. "Of course there's a problem! I'm running late, some idiot who said they'd help out caused enough problems and complaints to mess up our system for weeks, the other girls keep getting attacked, accidents are at an all-time high, letters have been going missing and now you nearly slam me off my glider! WHY CAN'T I JUST DELIVER THE MAIL IN PEACE?!"

Despite turning as red in the face as she is in the hair, slamming fists on the glider's steering bar and kicking her legs, the girl manages to remain remarkably steady in the air. Her tirade, however, abruptly ends as Zwei mentions the Old City.

"What-- there?! What in the world are children doing in there?! That-- Nobody who's gone in there has ever come out again! How--" The girl looks from Zwei, to the chasm wall, to her satchel and then back again. "You... gyaaah! Right, that's it! You! Follow me!" The girl abruptly dives, catching a wind current and swooping at speed along the invisible stream of air towards the side of the city by the carved chasm wall. "The Clavia Chaffinch Delivery Service, as the carriers of the feelings of the people of Clavia, has a duty to see you rescue those children! And if anyone asks why the mail's late today, it's because there's an emergency going on and it's not my fault that I have to help with it!"

"Clever girl," Zweirugi gives a wingover and follows in pursuit. He flexes his hands, eager to be seeing this through.

"So perhaps I can repay the favor in the future, tell me your name if you would."

"Jill. Jill Rufrin, of the Chaffinches," the girl calls over her shoulder, wind whipping the shout towards Zwei. "Not that there's going to be many of us left at this rate." She leans to one side, banking out of the air current and hitting another, increasing altitude and picking up speed once again, rooftops speeding past below, huge pillars rushing to meet the pair.
"You can't get to the Old City by the Old Gate. It's been sealed for centuries or something. Just-- I didn't even know you could get into the Old City-- I thought that was just a rumour! I mean, I know some of the old vent-towers are still standing, that's where I'm taking you now, but you can't even reach them unless you can fly, or know the right magic, or have spirits with you that can lift you to them... how did children get in there?"

"My hunch is spirits, given the lead-up. I can tell you the grand story after this is over if I can find you or if you want."

Zwei flies along easily, trying and failing to recall the location details Tristan gave him. Holding up the talisman and softly mumbling to it as though to himself, "Uh, Air vents? Are those in the side of the cliff I wonder?

"Spirits? I'd have thought the Tamers would have gotten involved if spirits are kidnapping children in the city. I mean, it's bad enough that we've been having all the trouble with the accidents, and Janet said she was sure it was a spirit that attacked her, and--"

Zwei blots out the girl's voice as Tristan's tinnily filters through the talisman.
"Ah... I believe it would follow that the air vents to the Old City would be the easiest, if not the safest route in. The entire... ah... city is situated underground, you see, and the vents were built to allow air to flow in from the chasm walls. From what... ah... little I recall of my history of the area, I believe they were an addition during the midst of the... ah... Nightmare Moon Era, likely after the chasm had been created by the entity in question.""

Zwei nods and zones Tristan out realizing he's reaching the history lesson; going back to listening to Jill while flying along.

"I'm sorry, what did you say about being attacked by spirits?"

Jill makes a frustrated gesture. "It's just what I heard. And it would probably make all these weird accidents we've been having make sense, I mean, we've never had so many crash-landings, letters are going missing when we're sure to keep the offices locked up even tighter than usual, some of the other girls keep saying their usual shortcuts take them to the wrong places, and then there was that incident with that idiot and the spirit-cannon- the Clavia Spiritual Defense Force had to get involved in that one! I just thought he'd done something wrong and annoyed a Spirit Tamer, but..." The redhead returns her hands to the steering-bar to prevent her exasperated body language from sending her off-course. "...at this point, I'm willing to consider we've either annoyed a spirit with a lot of underlings somehow, ended up getting cursed, or that someone really has it in for us."

Rooftops continue to speed by below. The girl rounds one of the large, square pillars holding up the 'roof' and flies into a considerably more open area, no further obstructions hiding the view of the chasm wall.
Much of the cliff-face adjacent to the city, running almost the length of the city itself, is smoothed and carved. The details are so worn away by weather and age, however, that it is impossible to make out what they might once have been, other than the fact there were once things there. A single bridge juts out from the city-layer's edge, running roughly below the bridges above to meet the chasm's wall, which ends in what looks to be a huge slab of stone the size of a house. Statues of knights in armour flank the door and stand arrayed down the sides of the bridge, which itself meets the wall along the city's edge in an ornate gate, closed with a huge chain and a stone block-lock-affair that Zwei can make out even from this distance.
Jill banks to the right, catching an updraft and picking up speed.

"I think there's a few of those tower-things that haven't fallen down this way."

Remaining quiet for most of this leg of the journey, the swordsman slowly cooling off and recouping as he lazily keep pace with Jill. He notes the gate with a grim smiles as they pass.

Zwei contemplates to himself, "Tch, if I hadn't already pissed off the Tamers I'd try to crack that barrier. One of these days I'll find a technique that lets me cut conspiracies asunder."

He starts to keep a vigilant eye for the alternate entrance where Jill leads.

As the duo continue to speed through the air, Zwei begins to notice parts of the carved chasm wall that have collapsed, outcrops of rock having tumbled down or the natural process of erosion wearing it away. One or two of the broken parts look like they may have been structures built into the wall at some point, now hopelessly crushed and shattered.
"Over there!"
His attention caught by the flying redhead, Zwei's gaze is directed to a very, very old looking domed turretlike structure built into the side of the chasm, rocks and weeds piled over it so much that it barely looks like it's emerging from the wall. The thing is the size of an average two-story house, and originally looked to have an array of narrow slits cut into its thick walls, time and wear having broken many of these pillars down to make it look like nothing less than a gaping, jagged maw.

Zweirugi smiles, "Well, thanks Jill! I don't think you should be following me if there's petrification effects loose. If I get a chance I'll let you know how this shakes loose!"

Zwei will dip upwards into the air and with a spiraling turn again re-angle himself down into the shaft. He draws out his blade to be ready as he does. He half fears Jill's going to follow anyways, but perhaps the Fury wings and Swords will deter her.

Zwei says his piece, zips upwards and swoops into the gaping hole of the turret-thing. The redhead doesn't seem to be following, either due to the petrification comment or because she doesn't fancy her chances down there.
The flying swordsman enters the shady interior of the structure. It's fairly simple; a roughly circular chamber, the outside once a ventlike arrangement of pillars, the inside empty except for a large stone grate about five metres high, the holes just wide enough to get an arm through. Some sort of steeply-inclined passage lies beyond, but it's too dark to see far.

Zwei laughs a bit, flares up his wings and re-lights his hair to see. He whispers to the doll, "I may be losing you soon as I'm about to descend, any guidance on the kids if you can still provide such will be well received."

Zweirugi will change tactics to prepare for encounter, jumping down the chute using his wings to parachute his fall.

"As children of the Great Houses of the Order, they may be somewhat... ah... demanding, being accustomed to a certain level of... ah... respect. I mention this because of your... ah... desire to get to the point, as it were, and nature. They are still, however, children, and likely to be frightened out of their wits. Please try to be... ah... understanding." A pause. "If they seem slow to... ah... trust, mention that I sent you to rescue them. If they don't believe you or for some reason refuse to join you, tell them I told you about the... ah... 'pancake incident' and threaten to spread the story. I believe the entire class is still sufficiently... ah... ashamed about it that, combined with the danger they're no doubt in, they'll want to follow you out to ensure it doesn't get out. A somewhat...ah... juvenile mode of leverage, I'm afraid, but at their age, rather effective."

The huge stone grate is in Zwei's way, the holes only large enough to poke an arm through. The stone struts are about a foot thick. How is he getting inside?

[Modrageball]

"Tch" Zweirugi pauses for a small moment to light one up on his hair. "Their magic or my blade? I already know which can reach further."

Zweirugi slices the with a blow of brute force meant to shatter rather than cut, simply forcing the piercing alloy of the blade blatantly through the obstacle.

(Powerful Attack, since he's trying to hit a wall. Using the ability of the sword to pierce defenses.)

Zwei winds up and delivers a powerful blow to the stone grate, blade crashing through the rock and blowing a jagged hole in it, leaving a vaguely-diagonal gap tall enough for him to squeeze through. Debris bumps and clatters down the steep slope beyond, rattling and echoing as they bounce off the floor and walls on the way down. And continue to do so. It sounds like the Old City, wherever it is, is rather deep down indeed.

Zweirugi descends undauntedly! (and subtly hoping he'll be able to locate them.)

Zwei descends the steep incline, loose stones rattling off into the darkness as he picks his way down. The light from above fades as he heads further and further down and in, all sounds save the rushing of air funneled through the tunnel silenced.
After about ten minutes, he comes to a fork in the tunnel. Both are secured with another of those stone grates, the righthand one strung with an ancient rope, frayed and dry as tinder, small talismans hanging from it.

Zwei leans to examine the talismans. Does it look like kids could slip through the ropes?

The ropes are over one of those stone grates with holes you could only get an arm through, much like the previous. Both of the ones here, with or without rope, and the one Zwei destroyed don't (or didn't) look like children in the age range Tristan spoke of could slip through.
On the other hand, there were supposed to be multiple vents into the Old City. Perhaps they got into it (and possibly to the other side of one of those grates) by another route.

Zwei's going to hunch on magic and destroy the grate with talismans, using a cleaner method in case this is warded. He makes four cuts to make himself a door using the blade's actual edge.

The ancient rope slices easily, its ends dimly flickering into frayed strands of light which dissipate with a sigh, talismans clattering off its lengths and smashing on the stone floor. A gust of stale air blows from beyond the grate to meet Zwei, almost in response.
The grate is cut cleanly enough that it remains propped in place, although a good shove will send the 'door' toppling over.

Sensing having cut some sort of seal, Zwei will draw his second blade, opening the grate with his boot.

The grate thumps down onto the stone slope beyond, grating and skidding into the darkness, eventually being followed by a muffled, crumbling series of thumps and cracks.
The other day, not long ago
Zwei draws his second blade, just as another sound drifts from the depths. It sounds rather like a child, singing.
I took my ball to bounce and throw
A further muffled series of thuds drift up as the grate presumably hits a floor.
I bounced it once or twice or so
Inside the marketplace

Expecting foul magics even more at the sound of queer rhyme, Zweirugi readies his blades and proceeds ready to cut down any offense.

pat.
While I was there, what did I spy
Zwei picks his way down another sloped stone vent, rubble knocking away from his feet and skittering down the passage as he advances.
pat.
The butcher's and the baker's wife
The swordsman comes to the shattered remains of another stone grate, set into the meeting-point of a wall and ceiling, opening out into a carved cavern. From what little light his flames cast, he can make out a couple of rows of flat-roofed buildings squatting below him beneath a carved-stone ceiling that looked as if it was painted in the likeness of a cloudy sky at one point.
pat.
Standing around to talk and sigh
The voice drifts from somewhere further in the cavern, echoing oddly as it bounces off at odd angles.
pat.
With frowns upon their face.

Zweirugi will attempt to make short work of this grate as well, but thrusting his blades through the grate to catch it from falling a setting it to the side of the shaft. He'll slowly proceed to maintain his Parrying Stance and hover over closer.

pat.
"The gates to other parts are locked
Zwei slices through the remains of the grate, propping it as best he can against the remaining stone prongs in the steeply-angled shaft's mouth.
pat.
My husband can't get his goods stocked"
Defenses raised, the swordsman hovers down, into the dark mass of buildings below.
pat.
"I'm sure the tunnel's just been blocked
The voice is echoing and bouncing too much to allow him to pinpoint where it comes from. He floats above rooftops, many fallen into disrepair, some caved in entirely as the rhyming, lilting children's song continues to drift throughout the area. The streets below follow a regular, vaguely-curved path, occasionally giving way to a plaza with a well in it, or dusty, dry mass of dirt that may once have been a small park. Zwei spots a trio of boxy, shadowy shapes standing in the middle of one.
pat.
They'll fix it soon apace."

While he suspects children, paranoia dictates a trap. Zweirugi approaches cautiously, very cautiously. He's not calling out to them until he can clearly see that they are in-fact human children.

pat.
That's right, that's right, no need for fright
Zwei hovers closer, the flames surrounding him illuminating the ancient, cracked flagstones of the plaza.
pat.
That surely is the case
The three boxy shadows are revealed to be actual boxes. Stone boxes, in fact, as tall as a man and distinctly tomblike, perched upright. A large, black 'X' has been painted on each of them, barely visible under the dust and wear the things have obviously endured over the years.
pat.
The case
The flickering firelight casts faint illumination on the houses around the plaza. Each and every one has a big, black 'X' painted on its door, at least those which still have doors and haven't fallen in.
pat.
That surely is the case.
A garbled, distorted mass of children's laughter rings out from around the rooftops, bouncing and echoing and feeding back in on itself. A grating sound heralds the three tombs opening a crack, sickly greenish smoke and light pouring from the gaps.

Zweirugi skin reels as his personal affinity to sound wave kicks in, the vibrations contradicting his natural senses. With a wave of his hands he tosses both blades into the air. He swirls into the air after them and aerially flips forward, abusing his amulet to maintain balance. As his facing comes to see the blocks he catches the swords and brings his arms down in fancy 大-slash, the swords tearing burning lines in the air before him before exploding towards Zwei's target, the back-fire from the blast intended to knock Zweirugi back for further distance, his voice carrying his frustration with the laughing.

"Gun-Flame!" The fiery blast heads towards his target carrying the impact of the attack towards the closest stone block.

(Juggler's Distraction, Ignition Slash to add FIYAH, Zwei's ranged attacks use Melee Bonus and Str., he's trying to hope the Fire and Ruinous Flame effect will stick to the stone thing and perhaps catch the gas.)

Zwei flips, slashes and blasts the tomb with a flaming symbolic explosion, shattering its lid and sending it wheeling around and around, skittering backwards over the cobblestones. Without any obvious method of moving itself, the stone coffin rotates on the spot and grates back towards the swordsman, its insides now revealed as a greenish mass of light and smoke, hideous decomposing skull-faces rising, writhing and being subsumed in the miasma within. All three slowly begin scrape-advancing towards the swordsman, who has managed to put a decent amount of distance between himself and them, landing in a dusty street filled with broken slabs of rock and toppled stone lamps.

(Does it look like the Ruin-flame caught?)

Zwei swears and mage hands himself an Infinity Stick up out of his armor, rolling his neck to ignite it with his hair as he catches it in his mouth.

Optimizing the distance, Zweirugi takes both swords and starts haphazardly cutting the air in front of him, the blades seeming to blur from vision entirely as his pace frenzies. From near to point blank range cuts and slashes arrive at the blocks as Lord Owl's technique is employed to carry the attacks. He tries to cut them asunder before they or the gas arrive to close, planning to take to the air if it fails.

("Ranged" Melee Attacks using the Glasses, Zweirugi will rotate between Golem-Slaying, Undead-slaying, and Spirit-slaying with each cut he sends until he figures out if any stick)

(The flame was jettisoned along with the lid, it seems)

Zwei unleashes a flurry of blows as he flies backwards, the peculiar ranged-melee attacks impacting on the stone coffins from a distance.
The Golem-Slaying slash doesn't seem to do much, the tomb's lid shattering and revealing a similar grisly scene to the first. The Undead-Slaying slash hits the first tomb, cracking the stone case and sending it grating backwards once again. The Spirit-Slaying slash, on the other hand, obliterates the lid of the third in a shower of stone dust and sends deep cracks running through the coffin's structure, pieces flaking off as it rebalances itself.

The first tomb roots itself in place, the horrible dance of melting skulls gyrating and writhing within it creating a display so unpleasant Zwei finds it hard to look away. At the same time, he finds himself being drawn in towards the tomb by some bizarre kind of gravity, but manages to use his speed and flight to prevent getting dragged straight in, instead only being slowly pulled tombwards.
The other two send gouts of sickly green liquid-like-light bolting towards Zwei. He avoids one, but the other catches him in the chest, sticking there and oozing through the armour. The swordman feels a plummeting sensation, as if being given some utterly, utterly terrible news. He temporarily gets hit with Diseased, despite his immunities, and instantly clears it due to the Infinity Stick, but gets the very strong impression that any more hits like that could land something far worse.

[Modrageball]

(Gah, notepad got deleted while I was gone. Looks like there will be some less chatter.)

Zweirugi steels himself and feels his amulet and stick anchor his mind to a stable state. He pours through his tactics in his head, analyzing what has failed thus far versus what he has available. He takes a long drag as he flicks his off-blade into its holster.

"Vashna's never gonna let me live this down knowing I failed this as a caster. Whatever"

He raises his blade above him with both hands on the hilt as the blade squiggles further to a length of over 6 feet (it IS a Kris/Flamberge). He brings it down to his hip with blade long behind him as power begins to course the edge.

"Tenseiken-" Zweirugi plummets forward, using his absurd speed, his wings, and even the gravitational pull to build acceleration. Stopping on a dime in the middle of the three he twists his body starting low and carrying the momentum up into his arms and the blade. He swings the blade upwards and then into a cleaving arc around himself to strike all three with the absurd length, a purple and gold arc of glorious and blinding energy tracing the air where his blade cut a mere moment before. "-SLASH!"

As the arc is fading, almost a mirage from the heat rising from the arc, Zweirugi can be seen finishing the same maneuver again with the sword going in another identical crescent. He's timing the second overdrive-sweep to match his opponents' assaults and bolster his defenses.

------------------

He's using Melee Overdrive: Sanguine Glee (converted to Sword Arts at the start of round) and working in a Sweeping Slash. If he can force it to be Spirit-Slaying he will, but that's the lesser issue here.

Start of Round he's using his options for switching the Sword of Vashna to a two handed weapon that provides '2 hits against 1'.

The options for the attack he's choosing are Time Stop/Temporal Stasis/Mystic Seal/Confusion/Hexed/Charm and opting to destroy spells / block rez's / remove buffs / apply MP debuff as necessary

If Sanguine Glee procs an extra attack he'll repeat it, including multi-procs if they happen. He makes sure to keep at least one sweep remaining for the defense.

Zwei unleashes another pair of sweeping, ranged-melee slashes, putting the vitality-draining power of Sanguine Glee behind it.

He instantly regrets the decision to use that particular spell as he is once again hit with Diseased along with the drained health, and only barely manages to rein himself back from a second swing with the realisation that the terrible, awful feeling he just barely dodged before was an infliction of full-blown Plague, avoided in this case by either luck or cutting out early.

The Plague Tombs are still hit hard by the half-aborted attack, the first shattering into a sickly conglomeration of wailing, putrifying skeletal agony and glowing green ichor, stone fragments sticking out of the mass like spikes. The second and third are cracked deeply. All three temporarily stop as Temporal Stasis takes root, corrode the binding, and are hit by a second helping in the form of Mystic Seal, glowing magic circles etching themselves into the floor around the things.

The circles flare brightly, keeping the trio held in place for the moment.

Zweirugi staggers and frowns. He then smiles seeing their connection to the ailment though, understanding a new avenue to attack them.

He opens his right palm as his large sword sinks into it, back into his body. Taking advantage of his foes' locked positions, he flips into the air with a wing-assisted jump and lands wherever he can place the three of them in a line. He pulls his fist back with a snide, head-tilting smile.

"I have seen and touched upon the fabric of your pitiful existences. Allow me to further practice and perfect my art." He adjusts his glasses as he throws the punch. "COSMIC. DOCTOR. OVERDRRRIIIIVVVEEE!"

He punches, his fist stretching and stretching as it ripples through the air, it forms more into the namesake blade as it travels and rips into the three of them, bright energy pouring out. The Cosmic forces ripping into them and cutting at their diseased ties.

-----------------------------

Melee Overdrive: Sweeping Slash: Cosmic Doctor Fist (Spell converted to a Kensei spell via Sword of Vashna)

He's inflicting the same status effects, however with one twist. The Cosmic Doctor spell has the option of NOT healing (which is chosen), but even when damaging, can still heal status effects. So Zweirugi is planning to try to hit them hard again, but also sever their ties to disease.

((80 Day mark. I figured I'd post to check this threads status before it heads towards another S.O.-tier 'Lost in Time and Space' Adventure.))

((If you do have some sort of block or the like, that's fine, but I'd like to then get permission to release Zweirugi (and effectively the RM as well) until this starts moving again. I know I'm not as vocal on AIM as I once was, so if there's some IRL reason, I haven't caught wind.))

((Gah. That long already? I'll be trying to get some stuff done this weekend))

Zwei makes his declaration, fist scything through the air in the form of a rapidly-elongating blade, infused with the power of cosmic healing and disease-removal.
The three Plague Tombs are hit hard. The first two shatter completely, the sickly green mass of disease and writhing skull-goo dissipating into wisps of foul smoke. The third's cracks deepen, rocking from side to side from the force of the blow, even with its impact dulled from having to go through its companions.
Its internal pool of putrescent plaguestuff spins like a whirlpool, asymmetric tentacles of churning filth flung wide from the centre. Zwei feels himself being pulled towards the thing sharply- The effect is far more potent than the previous example. Perhaps a last-ditch effort?

Zweirugi spins with the pull to build momentum as he heaves the sword back, armor plates interlocking madly to keep up with his agility as he combos into his next move.

"Cosmic-"

The light from his blade shimmers out a bit as the Overdrive wears, but the glare is still enough to glint his glasses as he brings the blade higher.

"Doctor-"

Without decreasing the size of the blade even a hair he brings it up, around, and back down, careless of the collateral of such a colossal weapon, straight onto his remaining foe.

"Back-swing!"

----------------------

Spirit-Slaying Slash: Cosmic Doctor Fist (Spell converted to a Kensei spell via Sword of Vashna)

Same trick as before, healing the disease status off of it while keeping it as a damaging attack.

The sword-man swordsman spins, gathering further momentum, his blade-arm skittering off crumbling walls as it rises and falls, smashing into the Plague Tomb's top.
The ancient, badly-damaged stone caves like a broken eggshell, repulsive innards spewing in all directions and wisping into nothingness mere moments later.
That hideous cacophony of garbled children's laughter rings out once more, echoing through the streets, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once, fading just as abruptly as it came.
Silence reigns for a time.

Zwei gets XP for 3 level 60 entities.
A small stone jar, sealed with lead, rests in the crumbled remains.

Zweirugi, furious of the whole incident, bathes in the silence for a little while before relighting himself a cigarette. He chills for a few minutes until his smoke break is over.

He heads over to the suspicious bottle and squats down to examine it.

Zwei takes a closer look at the jar.

Lachrima Ater Sample- (Consumable, Lethal Item, Toxin & Agony, 1 Charge, 50,000,000 Gold) 30% Inflicts Plague, Inflicts Confusion: Depression and Diseased: Contagious Ailment, instances of Confusion: Depression and Diseased: Contagious Ailment coming from this item count as Moderate status effects for the purposes of resistance and removal, targets possessing both Confusion: Depression and Diseased: Contagious Ailment effects from this item have a 30% chance of being inflicted with Plague at the start of each round that they possess them

It doesn't seem to be very pleasant.

pat-pat.
A few days more, not long ago
The song starts up once again, emanating from somewhere distant.
pat-pat.
I took my ball to bounce and throw
An odd, crackling hiss emanates from Zwei's bandolier.
pat-pat.
It bounced nine or ten times or so
The communication talisman is making a tinny, static-y noise, much like a radio with poor reception.
pat-pat.
Around the marketplace.

Zweirugi is going to pick up the jar and hook it to his belt (put it into his bandolier otherwise). He will fly up into the air towards the ceiling of this place to see if the reception comes in any better. He's going to be alert for more of the coffin entities.

pat-pat.
While I was there, what did I spy
Zwei flies to the cavern roof and its crumbling, ancient sky-fresco, barely illuminated by his blazing wings
pat-pat.
The butcher's and the baker's wife
The talisman is still emitting incomprehensible static, the occasional lift in tone and repetitive nature of the pattern suggesting Tristan is likely asking if Zwei is still there or can hear him.
pat-pat.
They both looked like they might just cry
The static-speech stops after a few repeats, replaced with much, much quieter static that would presumably be background noise.
pat-pat.
With tears upon their face.
From this height and with his enhanced vision-abilities Zwei's getting a much clearer idea of what the place is like. The cavern (at least what he can see) looks to be long and curved, and almost completely full of rows of mostly-similar flat-roofed buildings, broken here or there by a larger edifice, plaza, wide road or area where the crumbling stone has caused them to collapse (or, in some cases, caused part of the ceiling to collapse on them). The subterranean settlement's big enough to qualify as a large town by itself. Dark openings big enough to hold a house each pierce the far wall at regular intervals, wide roads passing through them to some other part of the area.

Here and there, Zwei can see more boxy shapes that are presumably more of the Tomb-foe he clashed with. Other, smaller shapes move here and there in the darkness. Nothing seems to be actively aiming in his direction, however.

Zwei, softly, will withdraw and hold up the paper talisman.

"Tristan, this is Zwei, I'm somewhere underground."

He'll take a moment to field Tristan's questions and explain his location, assuming Tristan replies. He will visually maintain watch though.

pat-pat.
"We're out of goods to bake and sell"
Zwei speaks into the talisman, explaining his current location.
pat-pat.
"My husband just doesn't look well"
More staticy noises emit from it, possibly Tristan attempting to respond to Zwei.
pat-pat.
"The gates will open, I've heard tell
The static repeats a couple of times, the pattern slowed down and slightly louder (although still incomprehensible) with each repeat, followed by more quiet static occasionally punctuated by knocking sounds.
pat-pat.
Once they've cleared out the space."

Zweirugi thinks for a moment and decides to try something else find these kid, something else entirely. He christens this idea by lighting another cigarette and sheathing both blades for a moment to enjoy his smoke and calm down.

He flies back to the entrance of this area. He is going to slice open and proceed down the other grate's tunnel.

pat-pat.
That's right, that's right, no need for fright
Zwei lights a cigarette in the post-fight calm.
pat-pat.
That surely is the case
Both blades sheathed, the sword-man takes a moment to enjoy his smoke on his way back to the grate-entrance.
pat-pat.
The case
The bubble of light cast by Zwei's flames contracts as the darkness seems to swell.
pat-pat.
That surely is the case.
The distorted, echoing mass of children's laughter rings out once again, bouncing and reflecting throughout the vast cavern. A rushing noise, quiet at first but building in volume, rises behind him.

Zweirugi goes silent as his gaze lowers slightly, the glasses' now-fading glare covering his eyes. Zwei's Infinity-Stick-heightened senses seeming to take a grip of the Swordman's now-dangerous realizations of his surroundings. He casually pulls the cigarette from his lips and flicks it into the air in a lazy arc behind him. It begins to fall as Zweirugi throws his head back with a smile and brings his right hand across to his left breast, murderous glare now visible.

"Can it! Ripple Cutter!"

In a single moment, Zweirugi draws his blade from his chest and with a two-handed aerial sweep, blade-dashes through the air behind him where he senses the being (not necessarily where he hears the sound). In a fluid continuation of the attack the swordsman brings the blade about, placing the now clean-cut and re-lit cigarette back into his mouth with the point of the blade.

:::::::::::::::::::::::

Zweirugi: Iaijutsu Strike (Equipping the Sword of Vashna for the attack in the Weaponx2 form for 2 hits against 1)

Attack Selections are:
Paralyzed, Fatigued, Charm, Paralyzed: Temporal Stasis, Manablasted: Mystic Seal, Time Stop, and Dark Miasma off of the Banshee for the debuff

Zwei wheels around, blade springing from its scabbard as he seeks to strike at the laughing entity!
He still can't get a bead on where the laughter is coming from, however. Instead, he finds himself plunging facefirst into a titanic wave of darkness, buffetted about by a multitude of objects.
His strikes seem to either hit nothing, the dark tide splitting as the sword falls, or excising small chunks of darkness that are swiftly replaced by yet more.
His Hallucinatory Nowhere-Body seems to be dealing with some of the attacks coming his way, but the sword-man still takes minor damage from the oncoming tide.

Zweirugi decide he will not stand for this trickery, taking a long draw he spits out the rest of his cigarette and draws his second blade, the ruinous Nohkret sword. He's never been explicitly afraid of the dark, doubly given the bonuses he gains in the night. Then again the living weapon wasn't afraid of much to begin with.

He starts commanding in a celestial and pure tongue even he doesn't recognize, inciting a powerful force from the burning rage within his heart, within his blade, within his soul. A brilliant light begins to pour out of his weapon as he swings his blades in a circular arc around as though sweeping the cavern of darkness.

----------------------

Zweirugi is using one of his last sword wishes (1 now remaining) to use:
Burst of Alzarian Light- 5,000 Damage, Inflicts Blind, Inflicts Awestruck, 1 hit against 30,000, Light, 70,000 MP

On as much of the darkness as he can and then some if there's targets left over, he will be hitting with the light. If he can have it sear along with the Nohkret fire he will.

Zwei unleashes a blast of alien celestial light upon the darkness, casting it against the engulfing mass that surrounds him.
At once, he finds that the city-cavern is completely blotted out by the tide of darkness that clusters closely to the sword-man's form, which he can now see is made up of thousands upon thousands of little black spheres, each with two hollow points of even more absolute blackness set in them.
Several burn away under the blazing assault, and, although countless more remain, the burst of devic light is sufficient to blast the tide back from around Zwei, strange eddies and whorls forming in the mass's surface as the dazzling blast takes effect.
The evil flames of Nokhret are, unfortunately, not compatible with the holy being's light and, as such, are unable to travel along with the effect.

[Modrageball]

Zweirugi "breathes" irregularly for a moment before realizing the situation and calming a bit. He sheathes one of his blades and pulls out a pair of cigarettes, lights the infinity stick on his wing, and quickly relates it with his mouth for a long moment.

After a pause he speaks, echoing his voice as much as able, "Find me the kids lost to this realm and accept me as your lord and I shall return to you your fallen!"

The tide of dark-balls continue to eddy around in a confused fashion, apparently either not paying attention to the announcement or not having the capacity to understand it. They seem to be getting rather less disoriented by the moment.

Zweirugi, calmly draws a cigarette and gets ready to light it if they decide not to take him up on the 'offer'.

The mass of darkness collects itself and once more surges towards the burning swordsman.

Zwei is ready to take action. What does he do?

Zweirugi gives a wry smile, lighting a cig, calmly taking a bit in before blowing the smoke in each of their collective faces.

((Camel-Headed Bastard Cigarettes- (Consumable, Lethal Item, Fire, 20 Charges, 30,000,000 Gold) User gains +30% to Hit, Cures Confusion on user, Inflicts Poison on all individuals who are not user, -3,000 to all stats of all individuals who are not user, User chooses a an entity from the Enemy List that is normally fightable for drops that is of a Level equal to or lower than possessor's Level that is equal to or lower than Level 20 that is normally fightable for drops and applies one stacked instance of every debuff that enemy could naturally apply to all opponents (with the same application conditionals as the debuffs on said enemy), buffs and debuffs resulting from this item's effects (including its ability to replicate abilities from the Enemy List) last 50 rounds and do not stack))

Zwei takes a drag and exhales a (surprisingly large) cloud of smoke into the darkness-swarm's direction. It's a little difficult to tell what the result is due to his opponent being a mass of darkness.
Given its response seems to be attempting to crush the swordsman under the sheer weight of its collective-self and utterly failing to do so due to further gaps opening up within it, and Zwei's successful dodging skill, it's safe to say it had some effect, however.

Zwei is presently in a rather cramped and constantly-shifting hole within the mass of dark-balls.

Zweirugi smirks, Vashna said they'd pack a punch, but clearly not enough.

He will maintain evasion, and now fueled more by rage his wings of destructive fury will blast him further down the other tunnel.

(For clarification: He's heading back up the entry-tunnel to the fork?)

(Yep yep! And then the other direction.)

Zwei manages to maintain enough sense of direction to blast his way through the mass of darkness and into the ventilation-tunnel he came from, the dark-ball-tide surging in after him. He passes through the ward-roped grate he broke at speed, the tide slamming into the empty space as if hitting a solid wall, flashes of strangely-coloured light crackling and stuttering across the gap.

The mass continues to push against the opening, a few balls of darkness managing to squeeze themselves past the faltering ward-fields as Zwei finds himself facing the other foot-thick (and non-talisman-strung) grate.

He will cleanly give the un-warded grate some S-words!

Slash! Slice! Swords!

If it works, now that he has confirmed another escape , he will take a mere moment to attack the other grate's faltering wards. Using the may-heal effect on his sword along with the Sword-Arts altered Cosmic-Doctor Fist, he's going to try to heal the wards and grate back up! (going for a critical heal if able!)

(Things are made a little tricky by not having a record of Zwei's abilities at the time of quest-start, however...)

Zwei successfully slashes the other grate to pieces, the chunks of stone rattling, grating and scraping their way down into the darkness. That done, he turns his attention to the gaping hole and failing wards of the other route.

Unfortunately, despite his sword's ability to heal entities, the inanimate nature of the grate, the lack of debuff- or status-effect-caused destruction of the grate, combined with his significant lack of Healer, Architect and Subspace Architect abilities results in him completely failing to accomplish magical sword-masonry.

More of the dark-balls pop their way out of the stuttering ward's grasp.

Zweirugi curses at his loss of time, and heads down the other grate post haste. He fumes, hoping the balls lose his trail in the long run.

Zwei rushes down the steep, long stone tunnel to the depths, presently finding himself before another grate leading to what he assumes is another cavern like the first.
Unlike the last one, however, there is light coming from beyond.

To maintain momentum, he's going to try to cut through it with a spinning slash, blasting through.

Subtlety in Zwei's mind is lost at this point.

Zwei brings his blades around and around in a spinning, whirling cascade of cutting fury! The grate is smashed, pieces of stone flying off into the lit cavern beyond.

And cavernous it is, indeed. Zwei finds himself perched in a hole on the side of a huge chamber, close to its ceiling. Below, an entire subterranean city spreads before him, the majority of the buildings being several stories tall and with flat rooftops, with the occasional larger edifice or differently-designed building breaking the flow. Much like the previous one, it is long and curved, likely cut into the shape of a vast 'C'. Open plazas and small parks, some containing nothing but dust and dirt, others still filled with grass, trees and flowers, break the parade of buildings here and there, linked by wide roads and streets. The far side, the inside curve of the 'C', has occasional house-sized gateways set at regular intervals that the roads pass through, presumably to an inner portion of the city.
The entire place is lit from above, the vast roof of the cavern carved into the likeness of a cloudy sky and coloured a vibrant blue, radiating something akin to sunlight into the streets of the city below.

Slowing his pace only a little, Zweirugi heads towards what appears to be the inner city, keeping eyes peeled for movement.

Zwei heads into the curving city below him, passing rooftops and spires as he makes his way towards one of the large arch-openings. The city here, he notes, is in much better repair than in the darker cavern he was in earlier. Only one or two buildings here and there have fallen into any state of disrepair, and in those cases it seems as if it was due to a complete collapse of a wall or rooftop.

Unfortunately, his attention has wandered sufficiently to cause him to collide with a small group of oddities.

A collection of floating masks and three floating stone discs with a sun-in-cloudy-sky motif block the flying swordsman's way.

Zweirugi stops and with a hasty bow apologizes.

"Pardon me, but have you seen any human children amok here?"

The mask-collection spins in place, several different masks pausing before Zwei in succession.
"Children?" A quizzical mask states, before being swept away in the rush of others.
"Children." A sad mask laments, before it, too, is caught up and shuffled away.
"A long, long time ago, and not long ago at all." A sly-looking mask hovers before the whirl of sculpted emotions. "What would it offer for such information?"

One of the stone discs rotates, revealing a stylised face on a green-full-moon design amidst a starry sky.

[Modrageball]

[UNIVERSAL EXISTENCE FAILURE. HISTORY HAS BEEN LOST.]

A nine-page gap ensues.
From what I can recall, Zwei explored the town, entered the central part of the Undercity's upper level, defeated a spirit of weights and measures (and gained dropped treasure) and tangled with a few more spirits before locating Lucern Relicta, Bellis Fiora and Ferroc Clavis in an underground farmhouse.

He ventured further onward and inward, coming across a temple-gate that acted as the barrier to the old Tamer's Estate-District of the Undercity, guarded by a number of guardian lion-dog statue-spirits. Taking a detour into a prayer-hall below the courtyard, Zwei located the petrified form of Molen Gladia, whose bound statue-spirit within his blade had been invoked to petrify the boy in order to keep him safe until a rescue party arrived. Undoing the petrification, Zwei and his growing party returned to the courtyard and made to enter the temple.

While most of the young Tamers could pass the guardians unhindered, Zwei's presence caused them to summon a barrier, blocking himself and Lucern Relicta from passing. A battle occured, during which Lucern was incapacitated.

[Modrageball]

(With the effort to stop the Debuffs/Status Effects, did the Barrier show any signs?)

(The barrier was definitely temporarily destabilised for a bit, but it seems support from the other statue plus its own effect-ending brought it back up)

Zweirugi gets the wise idea to decide to see if he can hijack their destabilization thus that they de-aggro. Appearances wouldn't fool these dogs, but mana-patterns might.

He strikes a pose! One such that he can hold Lucern safely behind him. He holds his sword aloft as his armor shines bright with channeled mana.

Zweirugi is going to see if, via his armor, he can take control of this seemingly-defective temple. Effectively making it a temple to himself and immediately ordering the dogs to cease-fire.

While Zwei has the armour, he doesn't really have the Priest, Channeler or (at a stretch) Paladin abilities to attempt to extend its power past is ally-focus. Neither does he have any worshippers presently about or inside the temple in question in order to fudge things with Leadership. He does have some measure of Glory, however, and it is this that he uses in order to attempt to push his supremacy across.

The sword-man strikes a pose, radiating Glory in an attempt to re-dedicate the temple to the magnificent him! The lion-dog statue with the ball blazes with power as it blocks the effect, looking, insofar as a statue can, somewhat confused as to what on earth its opponent just tried to pull.
The lion-dog statue with the cub unleashes a wave of silent power that impacts on Zwei for minor damage, it apparently having been thrown off by his sudden magnificent posing from earlier.

Zweirugi while continuing to dip and dodge, will sigh and light up an Infinity Stick, cursing that he's setting a poor example for the kids. He's going to see if the Ouroboros gate effect from that will let Lucern and him port just over to the other side.

Zwei lights up an Infinity Stick and attempts to bypass the barrier in order to get straight to the temple.
The lion-dog statues object. Zwei again finds himself in front of the shining wall of light, shortly before something strikes him a huge blow to his back, sandwiching him between the barrier and the attacking object and jarring Lucern from his grasp, dropping the boy to the ground in front of the wall, unmoving and (hopefully) only unconscious. Zwei takes moderate damage as the now-ridiculously-large stone ball rolls back down the stairs, shrinking as it approaches its owner.

Now empowered by his cigarette, Zweirugi smiles.

"You've made a terrible mistake, since I no longer need to hold back." He steps over Lucern, vowing mentally to bring him back in a moment.

He finally withdraws his other blade. Actually the other blade. I mean, the other-other-other blade. I actually mean that blade. From the bundle on his back slips the Evil Blade of the Great Devourer. It's cries begin to echo and churn the air with malice. It screams for sustenance. Zweirugi's grin seems to start matching the grim shade of the blade more and more by the second.

"Allow me to take back what you stole!" He dashes and double-slashes at the Dog he previously attacked once more, with feeling. His twin blades swinging parallel as he makes to draw their attention to a spot nowhere near the kid. Namely, their face.

-------------------------------

Melee Overdrive

Ruin Strike- (Technique Ability, Kensei) Possessor may use 'Ruin Strike' in conjunction with a 'Melee Attack' or 'Melee Overdrive' action if possessor is wielding a Sword, if possessor is casting a Sword Arts spell as part of said action, and if no other technique is used. Said action gains +50,000 Melee Attack, gains the element Destruction, and applies a debuff that stacks 3 times that provides -5,000 CON. Said action gains the additional cost of 5% of its user's Max MP.

Sanguine Glee- (Spell, Other: Murder Arts, Blood, 18,000 MP, 18,000,000 Gold) +18,000 Melee Attack, Deals HP Drain, 5% caster gains another action after this action if it killed a non-allied target or dealt more than 50% of a non-allied target's Max HP, Caster must be Level 20 or greater

262% To Hit
161% Critical (x4 Critical)
100% inflicts Zealblasted, Burning, Mindblasted
75% inflicts Paralyzed: Temporal Stasis
75% inflicts Manablasted: Mystic Seal
40% may inflict Manablasted
40% may inflict Antimatter
2% inflicts Petrified: Time Stop
Wielder ignores the Defense of individuals below Level 60
Wielder ignores the Defense of non-unique individuals below Level 80
Wielder ignores the Resistances, Immunities, and Reflections of individuals below Level 60
Targets of Zweirugi's offensive actions that have a higher SPI than wielder obtain a debuff that causes their actions that do not have a Natural MP cost of 0 to cost 2,000,000 MP in addition to their other costs that stacks 5 times
Individuals killed by Zweirugi have their corpses disappear if they are below Level 80 and Zweirugi desires such
Individiuals killed by Zweirugi cannot be resurrected by sources below Level 80

I know Double-HP drain isn't a thing, but he's going to try to hope one of the effects manages to work.
If the extra hit procs, he'll either hit the same one if it's alive or hit the other if the initial target is down.

This is his third overdrive this thread, although MP regen and downtime may have worn off the first one.

(Zwei has regained enough MP by this point to effectively have dealt with the first Overdrive-expenditure)
Zwei launches himself once more at the lion-dog statue with the cub, blade screaming with bloodlust-fuelled glee as he drives it into the stone face of the creature. The first hit is devastating, sending chunks of rock and stone crashing off the thing's body, deep cracks running through the creature's frame. The swordsman's form blurs as his extra action activates, sweeping his blades around and through the statue with enough force, combined with the many layered negative effects and debuffs taken hold, to shatter its form entirely. The barrier blinks off.

Zwei gets four times the XP of a Level 62 entity.

The lion with the ball, apparently outraged at this, charges from a complete standstill and crosses the distance to Zwei in less than a heartbeat, slamming him with a full-on stone headbutt and bone-juddering roar, sending him catapulting backwards for moderate damage. This has the effect, however, of sending him flying up the stairs, back to where the prone form of Lucern and the now barrier-less open hall of the temple is.

Zweirugi, realizing that making motion to grab Lucern would only jeapordize him, he decides to hit this one out of the park.

His voice hitting a higher pitch, "OHH-KAAY!" He sprints at the Lion, aiming for a head-on collision. He skids on the home stretch though and both hands on swords in parallel, brings them across to bat for a full swing, aiming to send THIS one with the Ball, Outta here with more than a Strike! A sharp 'ting' on impact.

-------------------------------

Awesome Slash

Colossus Hurl- (Spell, Unarmed Technique, Earth & Physical & Air, 100,000 MP, 61,000,000 Gold) +61,000 Melee Attack, +61,000 Ranged Attack, Caster may change target's row to the Front Row or the Back Row if target is below Level 90 and has lower Strength than caster or is below Level 40, Caster must be Level 40 or greater

Going for raw distance over anything else.

Zwei charge-slides at the statue, bat-smashing it with his swords and landing a blow with sufficient force to tear it from the ground and send it careening across the large fake-outdoors chamber, crashing through a shrubbery and impacting the fake-temple-wall surrounding the place's perimeter several hundred metres away. He doesn't think he's killed/destroyed/deactivated it, but he's certainly sent it a fair distance and likely dealt an equally fair amount of damage.

Zweirugi is going to hedge his bets and regroup the kids to safety. He sprints to pick up Lucern without breaking stride and runs him to the other kids. If he can tell the boy's vital signs while running he will.

His next action will depend on how much closer the lion got.

Zwei sprints up the stairs, scooping up the prone figure as he does so and charges headlong into the temple. He can't really find anything resembling a pulse or breathing on the boy, but sprinting up stairs and away from charging statues while the target of the vital-sign-appraisal is wearing fully-covering multi-layered robes and a hat hung with veils that obscures the head isn't exactly conducive to doing so. The swordsman passes the section previously filled by the barrier and into the ornate interior of the temple.

The lion-dog statue crosses the chamber rapidly, bounding up the stairs and coming to a halt just before the interior of the open hall. Either it can't or won't enter the temple itself.

The children (who had apparently been watching the fight) seem understandably distressed by the whole affair, especially regarding the inert form of Lucern. Even Ferroc seems to have run out of disparaging comments to make.

Zweirugi waves his blade over Lucern, channeling his power.

--------------------------

Zweirugi is using Cosmic Doctor Fist (swapped to Sword-Arts, still doing healing)

Zwei channels the power of HEALING STAR-FISTS through his sword somehow. While visually bizarre (and requiring him to bop Lucern with a starry-aura'd pommel), the spell seems to do the trick as the boy begins groaning.

Understanding the value of imaginary Health Points, Zweirugi heals him more until he's recovered sufficiently. He will then examine surroundings now he's inside.

Lucern didn't have a huge amount of HP (due to his level) from what Zwei can recall from his previous-scan and the healing spell he just used was pretty potent, so it seems likely the boy should be fully recovered, just groggy from the ordeal.

The temple is examined! The arched hall the group are presently in is rather huge, with walkways of elaborately carved wooden beams linking the upper floors that lead off from the place cris-crossing the space above, elaborate supports strung with banners of ornate script and odd symbols hanging from them.
The hall itself is elaborately decorated, yet surprisingly empty on its floorspace for the most part. A huge set of intricately-wrought double doors of red and gold take up most of the far wall, the portal's face taken up almost entirely by that now-somewhat-familiar two-linked-circles design. Smaller sets of doors leading into the other wings of the temple dot the other walls, some open, some closed.
The entire place is immaculately clean and showing surprisingly little wear for something that is presumably hundreds of years old.

Zweirugi stands, "Good work. Let's find your friends."

He begins to search.

Where is he searching first? One of the doors leading to the right wing, the left wing, or through the large door at the end?

Are any of them open? Otherwise he's going straight ahead.

There are six doors open in total around the hall, three on the ground level, two on the first floor and one on the second. The large door at the end is presently shut.

"...this city is two thousand years old," Molen states from behind Zweirugi. "...anything that hasn't crumbled, tools or clothes or scrolls, likely now hold spirits or great spiritual power. Be careful."
"That just makes them more valuable," Ferroc snorts. "That's why we ca-- that's why we need to keep an eye out for them. While we're here."

[Modrageball]

Odd man out, is most suspicious.

The living weapon chuckles, "Keep an eye out indeed, while valuable your hands would be quick lunch meat if you start laying hands on them without first improving your skill" Zweirugi turns and shouts, his sonic nature booming his voice, "Is anyone there? I was sent by Tristan to recover you!"

If there's no responses, then he'll try to large door in the back.

Zwei's shout echoes throughout the hall, bouncing off walls and shaking dust from the ceiling.

An odd, multi-layered whispering issues from one of the doors on the left. One of the doors on the right is radiating light from the room beyond.

Zweirugi considers, and will approach the light first.

The light-radiating room is a mostly empty affair, notable for every square inch being covered by strips of paper with painstakingly calligraphied symbols drawn on them. The symbol-strips form swirling patterns on the walls, floor and ceiling, centering around a series of concentric circles and focusing on a small, equally strip-covered pedestal upon which rests a circular mirror about a foot in diameter.
Zwei's Nokhret-sword and Evil Blade of the Great Devourer feel oddly heavy in the presence of the light.

Nope.

Nope. Nope. Nope.

Zweirugi goes to examine the whispering.

The whispering gets louder the closer Zwei gets to the open door. The room beyond is dimly lit, filled with rows upon rows of shelves and pigeonholes with ancient stacks of paper, remains of scrolls and cracked book-bindings in mazelike arrangements. The place smells strongly of dust and old books.

Zweirugi looks back to the trio of kids, "Alright, who exactly did we lose to this direction?"

Ferroc puts his sleeve-covered hands on his hips. "My stupid little brother Curro and my cousin Lyra, although she's only from a branch family, so she's not as important."

"What sort of spirits do they work with and can one of you try calling their names?"

"Curro has a lantern-spirit," Ferroc states, matter-of-factly. "He keeps trying to challenge my spirit to fights with his, but Alistor is much stronger and burns far brighter than his weak thing. Lyra has an even weaker one that just sings. I don't see the point in wanting to use a decoration as your personal spirit when you can choose much better ones."

Bellis, apparently torn between wanting to make sure Lucern is all right and the issue at hand settles for calling out in a half-hearted attempt at a quiet shout.

The whispers pause for a moment, then start up again, louder and even more garbled than before.

Zweirugi nods and decides at least something is in there.

He will tell the kids to wait there and approach the whispering library.

Zwei enters the room, slipping between shelves and stacks, stepping over a floor covered in dust and the crinkled remains of torn paper. Unlike the rest of the temple-area, this place seems poorly maintained and in disarray- most of the pigeonholes and shelves contain ripped scrolls, empty bookbindings and shreds of paper, with more-complete volumes being a rarity, a forgotten scroll here or untouched book there. The shelves themselves look to have been moved around at some point, too- the mazelike arrangement they presently occupy makes absolutely no sense for a library.
The whispering grows louder as Zwei continues to what he assumes is the centre of the room, pushing through a drift of dust and paper at the end of a narrowing corridor made of shelves to reach a circular clearing strewn with piles of dust, torn books and toppled shelves.

Occupying the centre of the area is a trio of bald figures in robes made of yellowed pages, with skin like wrinkled old parchment covered in faded, rust-coloured scrawl. Between them, a ball of crumpled paper within a cloud of whirling dust unfolds and unfolds, never growing in size but likewise never uncrumpling. The whispering is irritatingly loud now, although no less sensical- random phrases and foreign words torn and blended together in a ceaseless sussurus of meaningless noise.
One of the robed figures turns its head towards Zwei as he steps in, eyes torn holes in the parchment-skin dripping with ink. The whispering intensifies. Dust swirls and rises in the chamber. Zwei feels oddly drained.
The MP cost for his actions has increased slightly. He gets the feeling that he somehow managed to avoid getting the full brunt of whatever the effect was.

Zweirugi frowns. Operating under the opinion that the room's spirits are sick with disarray, it's time for the doctor to step up a prescription. Zweirugi reaches into his pocket with a wager.

He will dash in and attack the trio using a (sword-arts-shifted) Cosmic Doctor Fist to cause MP healing! He will focus on defense though, attempting to raise his ante. Any attack or the like they send at him next he's going to counter by slapping it with . . . .

*Zweirugi's Papers from the Seirei Portal- (Bound Accessory, Quest Item, Light & Darkness, 1,000 Gold) +1 SPI

He's going to bet Atra's handiwork against this trio's tricks.

(I'm not seeing any specific method he'd be attacking all three with the generally-single-target Cosmic Doctor Fist. Of course, his ability-link linking back to his present ability set rather than the ability-set he had at the time of setting off on this isn't helping much. How's he pulling this off?)

((Tri-Slash is sufficient with the 1 hits against 3, I meant that but forgot to note it when I made the Fist a Sword Arts spell.))

Zwei heal-slashes the robed group! This, of course does no damage to them.

It also seems to have no apparent effect. One of the three's eyes pour with ink in response to the sword-fist, splashing the sword-man with the dark liquid. Zwei feels the MP cost for his actions increase even more.

The three robed figures begin a whispering chant, shreds of paper and torn pages whipping up into and around Zwei, who attempts to parry with his paperwork. He successfully slaps aside most of the assault, only taking minor damage and moderate MP damage. The paperwork, it seems, is not quite as potent as he thought or would like, and crinkles unpleasantly in his grasp.

Zwei's papers gain:
w/ MP Cost Increase- All of possessor's actions that cost MP cost an additional 100,000 MP, Detrimental Effect


The paper-dust-ball crumples, uncrumples and makes a wrenching noise. Zwei feels something scrabbling at his collection of spells, but he leaps backwards into a shelf, interposing the magical Blade of Vashna to ward off the rest of the effect.

Zweirugi sighs, "So much for avoiding force."

He will leap forth and slash the crumpled ball in the middle of the coven with both blades, the camel fire and slash-vacuum creating a brilliant arc through the air as he goes for the quick drop yet again.

-------------------------------

Sword-arts-converted Sanguine Glee (so it's zero MP)
Mage King's Demise- (Technique Ability, Kensei) Possessor may use 'Mage King's Demise' in conjunction with a 'Melee Attack' or 'Melee Overdrive' action if possessor is wielding a Sword, if possessor is casting a Sword Arts spell as part of said action, and if no other technique is used. Said action gains +150,000 Melee Attack, gains the element Physical, and prevents its target from casting spells if its target is below Level 80 and not 5 or more Levels greater than its caster.

262% To Hit
161% Critical (x4 Critical)
100% inflicts Zealblasted, Burning, Mindblasted
75% inflicts Paralyzed: Temporal Stasis
75% inflicts Manablasted: Mystic Seal
40% may inflict Manablasted
40% may inflict Antimatter
2% inflicts Petrified: Time Stop
Wielder ignores the Defense of individuals below Level 60
Wielder ignores the Defense of non-unique individuals below Level 80
Wielder ignores the Resistances, Immunities, and Reflections of individuals below Level 60
Targets of Zweirugi's offensive actions that have a higher SPI than wielder obtain a debuff that causes their actions that do not have a Natural MP cost of 0 to cost 2,000,000 MP in addition to their other costs that stacks 5 times
Individuals killed by Zweirugi have their corpses disappear if they are below Level 80 and Zweirugi desires such
Individiuals killed by Zweirugi cannot be resurrected by sources below Level 80

Zwei surges forward with a dual-slash! The paper crumples itself away from the attack, but Zwei still manages to cut into it... although not quite as fully as he'd like.
Shreds of paper and whirls of dust scatter as the thing is set aflame and crackles with various bad status effects.

Looking very much the worse for wear, the thing recrumples into a burning ball. Zwei feels an unfamiliar status effect land on him.

Moderate effect:
Locked: Magical Lock (Possessor may not use actions that include Magical Attack, Overdrive, Active Abilities or Spells with a Magical Attack Bonus or containing the element Magic)


The robed figures continue chanting, one of the group opening its mouth and inhaling great gouts of dust and shredded paper as another debris-storm whirls around Zwei.

Zwei takes moderate damage and feels his MP costs increase even more. They're presently outstripping his discounts.
Zwei takes minor MP damage.

Zweirugi upholds the time honored tradition of knowing when he's in over his head again, this is going to be eating too much time though.

He will pull his blades tight and roll-dash out of the room, Defending as able if they pursue. Once he's with the kids, he'll see if they can reach outside before seeing if it's worth him shutting the door.

Zwei dodge-rolls between toppled bookshelves and piles of debris, charging on out of the room! The trio of robed figures seem content to stay where they are (although the whispering chant continues and Zwei feels his MP costs rising yet further). The burning ball of crumpled paper and dust, however, seems determined to follow him out. Is he going to change his actions in light of this?

[Modrageball]

Using his unbound strength he's going to close the door after the ball leaves the threshold, to trap it and block the line of sight from its suspected creators.

To clarify- he's closing the door once it passes through, leaving he and it in the main hall along with the children?

(Yep, he has no basis for any of this spirit stuff as per norm, so basic strategy is to separate it. It's also not seemingly doing damage but just draining/locking mp, which shouldn't fall into the lethal boat for the kids in Zwei's eyes)

Zwei slams the door, trapping the burning, crumpling ball of dust and paper outside the library. The children all rapidly scatter to the far sides of the hall. Lucern pulls Bellis into the light-radiating room with the mirror.

The ball crumples itself further. Zwei feels a horrible wrenching at his thoughts, taking moderate MIN damage.

Zweirugi facepalms.

Sighing, he will roll to the side of it and with a rising strike, hit it with the flat of his enchanted blade! Making use of the crunching observation of the earlier attack, Zweirugi is going to attempt to Colossus Hurl it out the front gate of the shrine! He grits his teeth, putting his shoulder into the blade and rolling it along his pauldron.

Zwei engages in the ancient and dignified art of Sword Golf. The burning paper-and-dust spirit-thing is caught on the flat of the blade and sent flying out of the shrine, trailing dust and shredded paper as it goes. Not as far as the sword-man would like, due to its inherent lightness killing much of the momentum, but enough to get it past the threshold.

Noises from outside suggest the remaining stone lion has met the new arrival and is none too pleased.

Zweirugi will pause a moment to make sure the ball doesn't re-engage, before calling to the kids.

"Hey! You all still up? Gather up here!"

The ball doesn't re-emerge. From the sounds of it the stone lion is attacking it.

The children gather at Zwei's command, Lucern leading Bellis back out of the mirror room, Molen crossing with his sword drawn and Ferroc slipping out from behind a pillar with a key in his hand. All of them seem pretty nervous from what he can see from their body language.

"Lucern, what was in that room? I didn't enter earlier since it had a weird aura."

"I think it's a purification chamber," Lucern offers. "A lot of temples have them. The priests put items for... sealing and exorcisms in them to be purified and gain power. The mirror must have been left behind in case anyone wanted to come back and use the temple again. It's... really powerful, I think. That's why I went in there with Bellis. Evil spirits wouldn't be able to go near it."

"Give me a moment to check it out then."

Zweirugi approaches it, he takes off his blades and retracts the Temp-Sword-of-Vashna. He'll then step into the chamber.

He's going to keep a calm eye towards the kids and make sure they don't go for his things.

Molen looks interested in the blades and moves to get a better look at them, but makes no attempt to touch them. The rest of the Tamers-in-training turn to keep an eye on the entrance and other doorways in the hall.

The room remains as Zwei left it, still plastered in swirling, circle-patterned designs made of those strips of calligraphied paper. The circular mirror sits on its pedestal in the room's centre, still radiating light.

Zwei feels the grasp of the Locked effect and MP-debuffs on him weakening.

Zweirugi, remaining mindful, has a better idea what's going on with the balance in this temple now.

He's going to stay in this room a little longer to disperse the debuffs, taking a moment to check behind the mirror and in the corners and the like for any signs or notables.

The MP-debuffs slough off Zwei in relatively short order. The Locked effect is proving a bit more stubborn, however, and is still hanging around for the moment.

Zwei investigates the room. Aside from the mirror and the strip-plastered pedestal it sits on, the place looks completely empty. Aside from the obvious fact that every surface is utterly covered in a complex spiral-circle pattern of those prayer(?) strips.

Zweirugi will head back out, tagging himself with a Sword-Arts'ed Cosmic Doctor Fist on the way out to try to shake the Lock.

Once outside, he'll grab his swords and examine the third door. (I think there was a third?)

There is indeed a third door open on the ground level. From what he can see from the door, it looks like a room containing a number of stands, each displaying elaborate many-layered robes, some red-and-white, some grey, some purely white.

Zweirugi will enter softly and begin to look around.

The room is still and quiet. Some of the robes look a bit threadbare, one or two are falling to pieces, but a decent number are still in pristine condition. One of the walls holds a rack of drawers that, on closer inspection, contains bolts of cloth and fabrics, presumably for repairs. Most of them are pretty degraded, with some drawers being filled with nothing but dust.

Zweirugi is going to return to the kids and see if they know the other two and how they could be hiding.

Ferroc folds his arms. "My little brother's a coward. He probably ran into a room somewhere and locked it after him, knowing how he usually acts."
Lucern points at the large set of ornate double doors at the far end of the hall with the dual-linked-circles sigil. "That symbol's the emblem of the Order of Spirit Tamers. Before the catastrophe, I mean, and before we all split up into different Houses. I think it'll only open for Tamers, so maybe they went through there."

Zweirugi nods.

"Let's give it a shot then, can one of you open those doors for us? If we all need to enter, I'll need to be carried in."

"I'll... I'll do it." Lucern walks to the door, grasping his inert chain in one sleeve-covered hand and shaking the other free. The young tamer pauses for a moment before the huge entryway, either steeling himself or performing some quick ritual before placing his bare hand on the door's ornate surface.
The elaborate designs and patterns on the door begin to glow, light spreading along the raised whorls and traceries of metal from the boy's hand and surrounding the large double-circle design central to the portal, a loud series of clicks and clunks issuing from within. The circular design itself then fills with light, followed by the gap between the doors flaring white as they ponderously swing outwards, accompanied by a blast of wind and the scent of grass.

Beyond the door is a swathe of sunlit countryside, flower-dappled grassland and blossoming trees rippling in the breeze under a blue sky, scattered clouds scudding past and providing occasional shade. A road made of white flagstones stretches from the doorway, passing a series of ornate pillars and over a series of gentle hills, sprawling mansions and palatial buildings nestled atop and among them.

Zweirugi takes a moment to scan the door, seeing if he can determine if he can pass alongside a spirit tamer or if he'll need to revert.

"Let us head in, this isn't too dissimilar from that barn."

(If he needs to switch to sword-form, he'll ask nicely to be carried)

The door's got more of that weird magic built into it (which Zwei is now pretty sure is Spirit Magic or related to it). Now that it's been opened there doesn't seem to be anything obviously obstructing passage through, however.

The group moves in, past the doorway and into the countryside. It's clearly impossible for there to be open countryside here due to their depth underground, but regardless, here it is. The ornate facade of the temple rises up behind them, a long, gently curving wall continuing on from its sides and vanishing behind the gentle undulating hills and grasses in either direction. It's considerably quieter than one would expect from countryside, with no sounds of birdsong or insects, just wind and the rustling of leaves and grass.

Zweirugi tempers himself for what is to come, it's too quiet.

"Never mind then, lets just hope those dogs win. Stay close."

He heads inward, looking for tracks or sign of prior passerby.

Zwei and his gaggle of mini-Tamers head through the doors and onto the wide, white-stone road leading from the other side of the temple into the strange, quiet countryside. The road seems to be in fairly good repair, a scattering of flower petals aside, with no weeds or grasses growing from cracks. This, of course, doesn't help Zwei's hunt for tracks.
A flash of green catches his eye from the direction of one of the distant estate-palaces, however. He can't quite make out what it is from this distance.

Zweirugi will re-draw forth his blade calmly as to not provoke the kids and set the groups' direction for the color variation. He pats his pocket but withdraws his off-hand from further motion.

The sword-man swordsman sets forth along the road towards the distant estate, grassy fields swaying and rippling in the breeze, various hues of green flickering and playing around and within them as shadows and sunlight cross them in turn. The scent of wildflowers wafts in on the wind, and it would be all too easy to imagine that the little group was taking a stroll along the surface- if it weren't for the utter lack of anything remotely resembling animal life in the area. No fluttering butterflies, no birdsong, no flashes of motion from the underbrush, just wind and leaves and blue skies empty of anything except clouds.

Several hills later (and ignoring two side roads that sweep imperiously towards sprawling estates on other hilltops), Zwei and his merry band of mini-tamers find themselves walking along a pristine, tree-lined road towards the estate in question. From this angle, and even from this distance, beyond the boundary wall and fancy golden gates, the place looks considerably less palatial and considerably more... wrecked. And in a rather odd fashion, too. The parts of the building that are still standing look almost pristine, gleaming white-stone walls and shining blue-tiled rooftops and brass domes and huge, elaborate windows and then it just falls away, the ragged edges of walls and rooftops immaculately clean and providing stark contrast to the darkened, yawning interiors. There doesn't even look to be any rubble, which is a further peculiarity.

Zweirugi draws blades and tells the kids to keep a further distance as they continue. He starts using his minor divination abilities to enhance his vision.

Danger Sense- (Passive Ability, Diviner) Possessor gains +50 to possessor's turn-order-determining stat sum for turn-order-determining purposes on the first round of battle if in a Random Dungeon, Has RP effects
Diviner's Eyes- (Passive Ability, Diviner) Possessor counts as 1 Level higher for stat-scanning purposes as an effect that does not bypass 'Immune to below Level X' effects
Magical Infravision- (Passive Ability, Diviner) Possessor gains +5% To Hit against Fire element targets that are below Level 60
Magical Nightvision- (Passive Ability, Diviner) Effects that come from individuals below Level 40 that are attached to Zones of Darkness may not reduce possessor's To Hit and Dodge values
Superior Vision- (Passive Ability, Diviner) Possessor gains 105% To Hit
Swift Sensory-Input Processing- (Passive Ability, Diviner) Possessor gains 110% To Hit
Filter-Out Sensory Overstimulation- (Passive Ability, Diviner) Possessor gains 30% Confusion Resistance

Zwei's eyes glitter and glow as he uses his divinatory abilities to sharpen his senses. The bright countryside seems to shine almost painfully under the sun as his vision adjusts, the darkened recesses of the half-ruined building becoming less shadowed to his eyes. He can see a few hallways and a room or two from where he is presently. Looks like there's still furniture in there.
So squinting, Zwei arrives at the ornate, burnished golden bars of the estate's gate. The thing looks like it was polished recently, despite the obvious (if weird) disrepair the buildings themselves are in.

[Modrageball]

Recently is enough of a tip-off for him to investigate, Zweirugi heads over yonder towards that gate!

The gate is clean. Very clean.Zwei can even see his reflection in it. Fortunately, he's also able to sense the incoming rush of somethings when he touches it, and so gets the chance to react before they arrive.

"More spirits?" he smacks the breast of his armor as he brings his sword to his waist, a cigarette flipping up into his hair, lighting and then getting caught in his mouth. "so much for trying not so smoke in front of the kids."

Zwei smacks his breastplate and pulls out his sword, snatching his hand away just in time to avoid the blur of motion heading for it. Cigarette lit and smoking, the sword-man beholds... well.
It looks something like a cross between a leech, a loach and a furry lizard, with weird fluffy hands/paws, about a foot in length. The thing immediately latches onto the part of the gate Zwei was holding, furiously sucking and scrubbing at the area. As it continues, more of the creatures pop up from over the wall and slink their way down towards the gate as well, scrubbing all the way. One or two pause to hoover up flower petals that drift through the gate and into the grounds beyond.
Zwei gets the distinct impression he's only able to see them because of his divination-mixture.

Zweirugi tries to ask them, pointing to emphasize that he's talking to them, "Hoover Doods, you seen any other kids around here?"

The Hoover Doods seem to be completely unaware of Zwei's presence, focused as they are on their task of... sucking. One does pivot with surprising speed to try to suck at the swordsman's hand as he points, but Zwei manages to withdraw the finger before it gets hoovered. He felt his buffs momentarily waver there. Presumably dirt isn't the only thing these spirits can suck up.
None of the weird fuzzy lizards seem to be interested (or capable) of answering his question. A glint of green as something moves past a window in one of the wings of the oddly-pristine tumbledown estate catches his eye, however.

"Keep about this distance," Zweirugi mentions to the kids as he puts out his cigarette and incinerates the butt with his hair. "I don't want whatever these cleaning spirits are up to coming after you all in the worst case."

Guessing he's still probably sitting on more debuffs than buffs at this point given his wealth of encounters, Zweirugi steps towards the building, letting the Hoover Doods do their thing.

Zwei steps towards the polished golden bars of the gate, still swarming with the weird fuzzy lizard-leech-loach things, and pushes them open. Almost immediately he is set upon by a swarm of the bizarre spirits, scuff-shuffling over his armour, his clothes, his face, sticking with suction and fluffy paws and hoovering and buffing the dirt from his travels off him. And not just the dirt. Zwei feels his instance of Locked get sucked away, along with the buffs he placed on himself. The SPI-recovery-prevention debuff landed on him by the Academy's upper staff from earlier, however, remains resolutely in place.

The sword-man stands on a wide, flagstoned drive sweeping towards the oddly-ruined estate, cutting through wide lawns set with ancient-looking trees, pools of colourful flowers spilling from their roots and tracing intricate swirls among the greenery. Some of the trees are obviously dead, but have been... polished, for want of a better word, sitting like odd sculptures among the still-living shrubbery. Old, tall bushes, more knots of twisted branches than leaves, form what looks to be the entrance of some sort of maze off to his right, a path flanked by more flowers leading up to it. To his left a decorative lake sits, shielded from a view of the estate's outer walls by what once was probably a grove of trees, now a series of polished wooden trunks and branches. Half of some sort of building juts from the depths, ruined in the same odd fashion as the main estate.
The drive continues up to a main entranceway, circling an enormous fountain long run dry, and meeting itself in front of an impressive set of gold-inlaid wooden double doors. The effect would be somewhat more impressive if there wasn't a large hole in the entry-house rendering them completely useless. Halls and wings and annexes bud off from the entrance-hall, shining white walls and glittering blue rooftops sprouting from them like some strange mushroom colony, many half-gone, with opulent corridors or furnished half-rooms revealed through the gaps.
Now he's a little closer, Zwei can see that the 'holes' follow somewhat-regular shapes- it's as if the white bricks and stones have been removed in their entirety, leaving only undamaged masonry behind. The end result is bizarrely clean, as if the place is caught half in construction, or partially ruined by someone with a severe case of OCD about mess.

Zweirugi will cautiously advance, sheathing blades and knocking on whatever the closest thing to the entrance looks like. He's going to tap into his sonic nature ever so slightly to try to knock louder. (no abilities, just starting element)

Zwei's fist hits a richly-decorated door, sending a deep, booming series of thuds echoing through the entrance-hall (and clearly audible thanks to the large hole occupying a sizable portion of the wall beside the entrance). The doors shudder in the aftermath for a few moments as the echo reverberates within.
A few moments pass.
The doors shudder again as an incomprehensible mumble echoes back from somewhere within the entrance hall, layering on top of itself and increasing in volume as the mumbler raises their voice from a vague drone to a shout, all while remaining resolutely indecipherable. The voice cuts out suddenly, and the echo with it, as the door Zwei knocked on swings inwards with a creak, molasses-slow.
This stands in stark contrast to the other side of the double door, which, halfway through Zwei's side's opening, judders, twists, and blasts itself off its hinges in a shower of metal splinters, crashing into the fountain behind the sword-man and knocking a good chunk of one of the tiers off before cartwheeling into a hedgerow.
The remaining door finishes its painfully slow opening... and then keeps on going, the wood and metal grinding into the stone frame, the door beginning to bow as it tries to wrap itself around the wall.

The hall beyond the entranceway was obviously opulent at one time- the white stone walls are elaborately carved and bordered with deep cerulean-stone panels whose vaguely-marbled patterns shift and waver like the surface of the ocean. Parts of the wall and most of what was once a domed ceiling are completely gone, letting light stream in from outside, illuminating a floor missing several broad flagstones, neat areas of bare stone forming gaps between more of the ocean-blue marble(?). Precisely half of a massive pink crystal chandelier, bisected vertically and dangling at a precarious angle, hangs from the ceiling, leading the eye down to a sweeping pair of curved staircases (one of which, on closer inspection, looks to in fact be a ramp, although obviously not by original design) wrapping around what looks like a bizarre piece of modern sculpture. Another large pair of double doors lead off further into the estate, set into a wall with a curious array of round holes worn into it.

Still on edge, Zweirugi will stride over to peek into the holes to see what he can see.

((There was mention this could be stamped as "On Hold" freeing up Zweirugi until it started again. I'm finally going to fold on my narrative morals to get some tasks done.))

((As the Moon Festival nears close and I'm back to farming, Zweirugi is back in this thread!))

Zwei strides on over to peek into the holes. But he has to take this phone call, first.

Wait, what phone call?

From the ornately-decorated, old-fashioned, gold-and-white telephone set he's holding, of course. He already has the receiver to his ear.

At the other end, a rambling, tired-sounding male voice speaks.

"Yes, this is Mr. Progression...

...

...well...

...thanks for calling.

Mr. Sequel, wasn't it? Well, you certainly make it personal, whether it's this time or any other...

Or maybe you're more the Electric Boogaloo type, but that'd require dancing...

...hopefully you'll get good reviews, but it's a tough act to follow, you know?

And you know how picky critics can be.

Honestly, they really are picky.

I mean, you can do all the right things and they'll say it's pandering...

...or they'll say you didn't include even smaller subcategories of the thing they wanted...

...or they'll threaten to write bad reviews unless you pay them...

...which I why I get ahead of the game and make sure to write all of my reviews first in their names.

It hasn't failed yet...

...then again, I suppose it would help if I had critics in the first place.

I'm more of a 'niche genre' guy, you know?

...what's that? You didn't call? You're wondering who I am?

...I already told you. I'm Mr. Progression.

And I'm just calling you back before your future self called me...

Isn't that truly convenient?

...

...well, anyway.

I'm here to apologise for the wait.

...well, I know that no time has passed for you...

...but at the same time, a lot of it has passed...

...it's because of so and so and such and such a reason, you see. Thank you for your patience. The boss says he wasn't expecting the festival to be as big a thing as it was...

...and then this and that happened...

...well, anyway. I'm here to give you a refresher on your journey so far.

You came in to help Tristan Doce with his delicate situation.

I mean, I can't say you'd be my first choice with delicate situations...

...but I'm sure your boss knows what he's doing.

Or thinks he does, anyway.

Either way, you got yourself some papers and took off for the Clavia Academy for those Spirit Tamer types.

You also triggered the prerequisites for the communication charm Tristan sent to hide in the gate-place to hop onto your belongings and activate itself.

...turns out, Mr. Doce had a few students from his classes up and vanish on him, and wasn't satisfied when he was told people were looking for them.

Especially when they still didn't turn up a couple of days down the line...

And that student board they had showed they had some injuries...

And then when the talismans showing their status went missing...

...and staff were restricted from leaving the fancy layer the academy's on without permission...

...I can see why he'd be suspicious, you know?

Then again, losing the kids of Spirit Tamers is a pretty big deal, so I could see why they'd want to keep it quiet...

...well, anyway. Tristan filled you in as best he could about what he thought might have happened and where they might have gone, either sneaking into the city, getting kidnapped, getting robbed, or somehow getting into the Old City underground...

It's a dangerous world, you know?

...then you demanded he do some things he couldn't do, like getting you an audience with the headmistress, or teleporting you, or the like...

...and then you lost patience when he was heading to the library to look up information for you and you stabbed yourself through space and into the academy itself, and caused a pretty huge panic while you were at it.

I mean, it's only where the children of Spirit Tamers are sent to learn, it's not like there'd be security or anything, right?

...it didn't really help that you set yourself on fire and pretended to be a spirit of vengeance.

Really, it didn't.

I'm not sure what you were going for, there. I mean, there's only going to be so many reactions to an angry spirit manifesting itself in the halls of the Spirit Tamers in this world, and none of them are likely to give you clues to the situation at hand...

...and then you went rampaging around for clues and demanding the senior staff show themselves to you...

They're senior for a reason, you know?

Having confidence in your abilities is one thing, but overdoing it just sets you up for a fall...

...fortunately, it turns out Mr. Doce is pretty good at planning on the fly and made use of your distraction to do something he was capable of handling, rather than charging into the headmistress's office without an appointment and getting fired on the spot.

So, while you were busy fighting the overly enthusiastic adjunct professor of swordsmanship and wrecking the administration offices, he set off to the Senior Staff Tower to get more information...

...it helped that you killed the sword-professor and drew all the senior staff out to deal with the situation, even if you did wish him back to life.

You seem to use violence to solve a lot of things, you know?

...well, then you got dragged into a sanctum by three of the senior heads and engaged in a righteous-indignation-off. And then almost got yourself captured.

They really didn't like someone breaking in and causing all that trouble, you know? And they're pretty good at what they do.

Fortunately, you made yourself a sevenfold wish to be able to act unimpeded for the rest of your adventure here.

...you're eight down on that count, incidentally.

...anyway.

Tristan found out the kids were definitely in the Old City by way of one of the old ventilation shafts and told you where to get a map of the place to work with.

...of course, given you were being chased by a bunch of angry replicating shikigami-cranes, you were in too much of a rush to get the map, so you winged it.

Literally.

You almost collided with one of the girls from the flying Clavia Chaffinch Delivery Service, you know?

Good thing she's got a good head on her shoulders and could lead you to one of the old vent-towers...

...turns out you took a wrong turning in the vents and went to the part that got quarantined off due to the plague.

Good thing you didn't stick around too long in there.

Revenants are no joke, you know?

Neither are spirits formed from millennia-old lingering regrets of the plague-dead.

...well, anyway.

You skipped on out of there before it got too unpleasant and went to a better-preserved district instead...

From there, you made your way through the residential area of the city, fought with a spirit of weights and measures, and made your way further down to the underground farms.

You even found three of the kids you were looking for in a farmhouse there. Go you.

...kind of a shame there were three more unaccounted for, but maybe you'd get partial credit for just them?

Well, you decided you might as well collect the whole set, so you went off to find the others.

...you even got to meet one of those spirits that look after children and the elderly on the way, who gave you a blessing.

What? You didn't know that's what it was?

...well, that's what it was. You're pretty lucky, you know? They don't tend to show themselves much...

...then you beat up a fruit cart and headed on down to the temple district.

It kind of says something that that's one of the more sensible things you lot get up to, you know?

Anyway, you then went down to the prayer hall, picked up the kid from House Gladia, and went back up and into the temple after beating up a couple of crazy guardian statue-spirits.

...pity you got Lucern up in that mess. I'm sure his chain-spirit-thing will be fine after a bit of time, though.

...well, maybe more time than that.

Anyway, you went into the temple and checked out a couple of rooms.

...by the way, the reason those blades of yours felt heavy near that mirror you found is because it's a purifying tool that banishes and subdues evil.

It's unique, too, and pretty powerful for being stuck in that purification chamber for two thousand or so years. Might be worth picking up on the way out. So's a whole bunch of stuff down there.

...that advice was free, by the way.

You also tangled with a bunch of spirits of ruined paperwork and disarray and went on to the other side of the temple where the old tamers' estates are.

You followed a flash of green you spotted in one of the old estate's windows and headed on over, leaving the kids to hide outside.

The place is in a weird state. Then again, what do you expect of somewhere that's had spirits bound to it for two thousand years with nothing to do except the duties they were given and nothing else?

Oh, incidentally, it might seem like those fights have taken quite a while...

...but you're taking on a place that's really old and has a lot of history, you know?

I mean, those places tend to hold some powerful spirits.

Be grateful you're exploring one of the easier ones...

...also, remember what level you are here.

I know it's been a while, but don't go thinking you can pull stuff you can't.

...speaking of which, those abilities of yours...

...you really need to provide a record at the start of the adventure, you know?

I mean, it's too much of a headache when things go on this long otherwise for the boss.

...what?

...no, don't worry. It's kind of meta stuff.

...still, that leaves me in a bind, you know?

And you probably don't remember what you knew when you started, either...

...

...tell you what.

I'll bring you up to speed with your latest skills.

Not your level, though. That's a bit too much to ask...

It's a service, you know, a service.

...just don't go expecting any other freebies from me.

...except the boss told me to let you keep the phone by way of apology...

...so I guess you get that, too.

...just call if you get stuck or need advice or something.

It'll only work once, though.

...so don't just go calling me back asking what this was all about.

Really, don't.

...well...

...thanks for calling.

This has been Mr. Progression."

*click*




Zwei finds himself with:
Telephone That Calls Mr. Progression- (Consumable, Invention, Progress, 1 Charge, 500,000,000 Gold) Has RP Effects, this item and its effects may not be altered or replicated by sources below Level 200, this item's charge's consumption cannot be prevented or undone by sources below Level 200

He's also hit with a rush of knowledge as his current skillset lands on him.


The holes, on closer inspection, look like they've been worn through the wall, the edges smooth and tapered, as if something had been repetitively grinding away at it in a circular motion for a long, long time. Through it, he can see a richly-appointed hallway leading off into the depths of the estate, illuminated by elaborate pink-crystal wall sconces set into the white-stone-and-oceanic-blue-shifting-marble walls. The hall looks like it splits early, leading both directly ahead and off to the left and right. Parts of the hall are left in shadow where the sconces seem to have been removed from the walls. A few more of the worn-through holes dot the area, too.

Zwei grits his teeth, giving his cigarette a terrible angle. He goes to spit it, but in light of the cleaning spirits, sets it alight and burns it there.

Go save the children Zweirugi
The administration's up to no good Zweirugi
Don't wreck everything Zweirugi
Distract them a little longer Zweirugi
Don't fight them Zweirugi
Try not to play with the Coffins Zweirugi
Don't remove the seals Zweirugi
Ignore those dogs Zweirugi

The masterwork swordsman sighs long, taking a moment to try not to snap at the newly acquired inanimate object, despite how much he felt the voice was trying to set him off. He was here to temper himself.

Letting himself have a moment of clarity, he heads over to where the empty sconces are. There he raises his sword as it glows alight with another wish.

"I wish to know the most convenient route to the individual or individuals that have removed these sconces."

Zwei makes his wish. He gets the sudden, odd sensation of several presences besides his own in the abandoned estate.
The closest seems to be through the double doors and along the left-hand hallway. He intuitively knows it's in a room ajoining the hall.
Two others are further inside the building, straight down the corridor beyond the doors and off to one side, in a larger room.
A fourth looks to be on an upper floor, perhaps the third or fourth by Zwei's reckoning, and considerably further away than the others. He thinks the fastest way on foot would be to go up the curved stairway in this entrance hall, head off to the right-hand side of the building, through several hallways, making an oddly circuitous path around a specific set of rooms, up two more flights of stairs and into what should be a solarium of some sort.

Zweirugi nods, thinking.

He's going to head to the close one for now.

Zwei's Wish-granted knowledge leads him through the double doors and into the once-opulent corridor beyond!

The place is... weird. Clearly it was an exceptionally fancy estate at some point. The spotless shifting-ocean-colour walls of expensive-looking blue marble and white stone, crystal sconces (where present), chandeliers and deep, rich blue carpets and drapes attest to that.
On the other hand, there's jarring absences of... stuff. Parts of the carpet have been neatly removed, revealing highly polished stone floors beneath, many instances having smooth, bowl-like depressions in them. Sconces are missing. Some chandeliers are incomplete, or have entire sections removed. Some of the windows are completely missing glass, panes and curtains. Many areas have more of those strange, round holes bored into walls, and some of the outer walls and windows viewing the (variably-alive and landscaped) gardens look like they've had stones removed from them or their frames, and the resulting hole-surfaces polished to a glossy shine. The place looks emptier than it should, too, with fancy pots and planters present along parts of the hallway, containing no trace of any sort of plant or earth inside. A lone table, polished white stone table with more of the shifting-ocean-marble trim, stands against a wall partway down the hall with a hole bored into its top. Closer inspection of some of the other parts of the hall reveal neatly-arranged quartets of stone stubs that look rather similar to the table's feet.

Fancy sets of double doors, carefully spaced to allow the light from outside to spill precisely through the windows to frame them, lead into adjoining rooms. Several are missing doors entirely. Many of the rooms contain odd clusters of furniture erratically stacked atop one another. One has a bedframe balanced on its side with a stack of chairs reaching the ceiling, with further chair-stacks balanced sideways atop that and wedging themselves into the far walls of the room.

The closest presence (Zwei can, by now, determine they all have a similar 'feel' to themselves) is through what was probably once a doorway, now a circular aperture in the wall, its edges polished smooth, much like the other holes and depressions he's seen.
Inside, the room is... less a room, more a spherical space of smooth, white stone that breaks into the adjoining rooms with jarring suddenness. One of the rooms was carpeted; the carpet abruptly ends at the edge of the sphere, the room's panelling, ceiling and everything else giving way once it crosses that invisible boundary. The sphere's 'top' similarly reveals a hole into the floor above, precariously-perched bookcases infringing upon the top of the sphere's space perfectly polished away at its outer edge. A rather smaller hole at the bottom of the sphere leads to a lower level, the area beyond lightless and eerie.

At the opposite side of the spherical-hole-room from Zwei, a female figure stands with her back to the sword-man. She wears a modest-length, dark-blue dress with an elaborate bow securing a flowing white apron, a matching pair of sensible, dark-blue shoes with white stockings, and ruffled white maid's mob cap on her head. Her right arm is a circular blur of motion as she scrubs at the worn-smooth wall and the edge of the hole leading to the far room; her left hand holding a shiny bucket that glows in the dimmer internal light.
She looks up as Zwei looks in. And up. And further up, arching back, her arm still furiously scrubbing at the precise same spot even as she contorts over backwards in a physically impossible fashion to face Zwei.

With her lack of face.

Her face is a featureless, flesh-coloured, bowl-shaped depression into her head, a solid block of the same flesh-coloured substance.

"WELCOME!"
The shriek is distorted, as if played on a damaged cassette.
"WELCOME!"
The maid has now completely doubled over backwards, spine apparently not adhering to any physical (or biological) laws, still scrubbing the same spot at blurring speed.
"WELCOME!"
Still scrubbing, the maid begins to advance (retreat?) towards Zwei, arm furiously blurring, now polishing thin air.
"WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME--"

Zweirugi has trained for this day, or at least paid Bascaradine enough so that he had training for this day.

He throws his arms out in an attempt to stop the runaway meido by immobilizing her wrists with his grasp. Up over the shoulder, another arm comes! Doctor Leon Kindler's Undying Arm swings with an overhead hook at the overeager wait staff with a fresh prescription of pain!

The arm slams forth with a tingly force and not any pain at all. Zweirugi is actually intending to restore proper functionality to the maid using his spell and arm.

[Wolf's Sudden Lunge : Comsic Doctor Fist] (making use of the unique arm and Wolf Style Weapon Addition to avoid being limited to Unarmed Techniques)

Zwei grabs the incoming maid firmly by the wrists, and issues a surprise healpunch with his surprise third arm!
The maid's face-hole fills in slightly in response to the healing. The maid's behaviour, however, proves to be no less erratic. Legs still pumping, the maid reverses course and, still grasped by the sword-man, proceeds to walk up thin air, circling up and over the sword-man and landing on the other side, still walking and with her arms bent at bizarre and unnatural angles. She's surprisingly strong, but the awkward position (given Zwei's retained grasp on her wrists) coupled with his having more leverage prevents her from dragging him backwards to wherever it is she's aiming to get to.

Her hand, still vibrating, is stilled somewhat by Zwei's grip. What he assumed was a cleaning cloth appears to be something flesh-coloured with some sort of blurry design on it.
A hole opens in the cloth.

"CLEAN THE-
POLISH THE-
CLEAN THE-
POLISH THE-
CLEAN THE-
POLISH THE-
CLEAN THE-
POLISH THE-
WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME POLISH WELCOME WELCOME CLEANING WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME--"

[Modrageball]

Zweirugi's eyes widen, he realizes his issue isn't what is bizarre, but his inability to tell of that which is bizarre, what's supposed to be and what isn't. He needed time and he needed to observe.

He uses his grip to bring up his legs and plant his feet on her chest before kicking off into the air. His wings of destructive fury erupt as he takes flight to create and manage distance while he watches.

It's clear though that elevation isn't an obstacle for her though, and he draws his blades regardless as an additional line of defense.

Zwei kicks off with a flash of fire, soaring up through the scrubbed-open hole between floors to hover by the ceiling of the upper set of rooms. He notices, with passing amusement, the chandelier with its lower half perfectly worn away to fit the contour of the Sphere of Polished Smoothness.

The maid continues 'walking' up and around and around on the spot in an almost comical fashion, arm beginning to vibrate once again as her face-cleaning-cloth vanishes into a blur.
"WELCOME THE POLISH THE CLEANING THE WELCOME TO
MASTER
MASTER
MASTER
MASTER
WELCOME TO THE MASTER
WELCOME MASTER TO THE CLEANING
WELCOME ESTATE
CASTIA
CASTIA
MASTER CASTIA
HOUSE OF CASTIA
WELCOME ESTATE WELCOME ESTATE OF THE CLEANING OF THE POLISH TO MASTER CASTIA OF THE
WELCOME
WELCOME
WELCOME"

Zwei's stepping back (in a metaphorical sense) affords him a little time to think. Didn't someone say the spirits down here would be powerful because of how old the place was? And those tomb-like things nearly hit him with Plague. That's a Major effect.
And the kids said something about the spirits acting crazy due to being bound down here for so long, didn't they?

Cosmic Doctor Fist is a pretty potent healing spell for its level. It managed to fill in the maid's face a bit, and if he assumes her wearing-away-at-things is something akin to a debuff, that puts her at below level 70. She's still acting crazy, though, so whatever other problems she has likely mean that this isn't a case of simple Confusion he's looking at, here.
It's likely full-blown Insanity.

The maid's head rotates on her neck, completing three full circuits before the depression ends up 'facing' Zwei. Her bucket shines, a flickering stream of liquid light pouring from it, lifting into the air and creating an erratic ring around the spirit's body as she turns ninety degrees to the floor and starts walking up nothing towards the sword-man.
"CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING--"

The swordsman glows with an awesome power! Assuming the maid is not granting worshipper benefits, Zweirugi does. Zweirugi will channel this along with his armor to see if his sudden deific effects cut some discipline into her tone.

He will slice at her with his blade, going for a clean hit through the head. He's trying to keep the body as intact as able, but his aim is to be piling on more status effects since it seems Insanity has a good grip on her.

[Impairing Slash! Sword of Vashna is opting to try and stick -> 75% Voidstruck: Turned To Shadow, 75% Manablasted: Mystic Seal, 100% Paralysis, 100% Charm, 100% Confusion (if she's between 60 and 70, he's definitely not piercing resistances, but still making the attempt)]

Zwei attempts to assert his awesome deititude over the maid! This... doesn't seem to work, as all it does is prompt another round of shrieked garblings about 'Master Castia'.
The blade-slice goes somewhat better. The instance of Turned To Shadow is immediately blasted away by the shining ring of 'water', but the Mystic Seal sticks, holding her mid-stride in midair. The minors take hold, but he's pretty sure they're not going to last long.

Zweirugi nods, "Good enough for a moment."

He's going to land and hightail it to the entity he detected while the maid is a little tied up.

To clarify: Is he talking about the green thing that caught his eye earlier, or the entities his wish detected as being responsible for removing the light-crystal-sconces from the walls? If it's the latter, the maid was one of said entities (who all seem to be registering as the same sort of entity through his wish-sense).

Oh. He's outta here then.

If there's an opening that directly exits the building that he can then loop around to the entrance with, he'll opt for that, otherwise he will head directly to the two entities that are together within the building.

It appears that the upper room(s) presently adjoined by the Sphere of Overenthusiastic Polishing have windows that open out directly onto the gardens. 'Open' being an operative term, here, as it appears that all of them have had their glass, panes and frames removed. It's a simple matter to fly on out of the openings and swoop back around to the entrance.
As he does so, he notices a flash of green in one of the third-floor hallways open to the elements as something makes its way from out of the internal gloom and into the 'sunlight'. It looks vaguely like a cross between a box and a miniaturised shrine.

Zwei's outdoors! Is he going to be heading back to the kids, or aiming to find the two entities that are together in the building?

He's planning to head in, although if he can see the kids he'll wave to indicate he's not done just yet.

He'll keep an eye on that shrine for a moment.

The shrine-thing floats off into a doorway barely visible from Zwei's position, pauses, backs up in a somewhat awkward fashion, rotates on the spot, rotates back slightly, and heads off out of the sunlight, presumably further down the hallway into the estate.

The kids appear to have hidden themselves in some long grass behind a tree. Molen, identifiable by his different outfit, waves back. Lucern gives a half-hearted wave, apparently preoocupied with examining his chain.

Roger! Back in to the duo, making sure to try to avoid where the anticipated path of the shrine is.

Zwei re-enters the estate by the front door (the remaining door apparently having crushed itself to splinters against the wall in the meantime) and heads back through the double doors, this time heading straight down the previously-opulent hallway, passing patches of darkness where the light sconces have been removed.
His wish-granted direction sense leads him down the shortest path to his destination, seeing him turn right before a staircase and entering a door cunningly concealed in the wall to a series of back-passages. The floor here is made of wood, the walls plain and significantly less fancy than the outer corridors- perhaps these are servants' passageways of some kind.
A door on the way to his destination, apparently leading to some sort of storage cupboard, lies open. A pile of familiar-looking pink crystal spills out of it, some radiating light, others intermittently flickering or completely dark. A few other random assorted objects stick out of the pile or lie on shelves, including what appears to be exactly half of an elaborate crystal chandelier, split vertically.

Zweirugi will take a moment to examine some of the assorted items in the pile and on the shelves, to see if there's a pattern if what's there or what's missing, or if anything in general could be useful, like keys or what-not.

Zwei digs through the pile!
It looks like it might have started off as a collection of broken or worn fittings and fixtures- a cracked crystal light, a broken chair, a box of chipped crockery- but other things ended up being added to the mix later.

One particular item attracts his attention- an elaborately-carved white-stone fusion between a box and a shrine, about a cubic foot in volume. Its sides have an ornate shutter-like pattern centered around a vaguely familiar central design depicting a pair of interlocking rings, while its top is fashioned in the likeness of an elaborate shrine-roof. It looks somewhat similar to the green one he saw earlier. This one, however, seems to be inert.

His Arena-granted appraisal abilities determine it as:
Ancient, Deactivated Seireian Chancel 'Fide Alba'- (Item, Antiquity, Air & Warding, 60,000,000 Gold)

Some of the light-sconces are still working perfectly well, too. Perhaps the insane maid got a little too liberal with what she deemed to be out of order.
They look to be:
Rose Quartz Sconce From An Ancient Spirit Tamer Estate- (Item, Antiquity, Light & Crystal (2), 40,000,000 Gold)

There are 8 of them.


There's also a fork. The fork is notable for its weirdly radiant aura and the fact it's hovering a few inches from the cupboard's ceiling. It doesn't seem to be a hostile entity, however.

Zwei determines it is as follows:
Ancient, Partially-Sentient, Spiritually-Empowered Fork From The Old Clavia Tamer District- (Weaponx0, Tool, Light & Darkness, 40,000,000 Gold) +40,000 Melee Attack, +40,000 Ranged Attack, this item additionally possesses the subtype Spirit, a Prime Stat of 20,000, a turn order of 15,000, counts as possessing a To Hit value of 180%, counts as possessing a Critical value of 140%, counts as wielding a Tool, may be targeted with status effects and buffs as if it was a separate entity and may use any of the abilities it grants its wielder as an action for no MP cost, Wielder may not have this item equipped if wielder has any other Weaponx0 equipped
Grants Abilities:
Here Comes The Airship!- Caster uses a charge of a Food consumable in caster's (or the possessor of caster's) possession on a target that would be valid for said consumable, actions involving this ability gain +40% To Hit and may not miss targets below Level 60, Air, 20,000 MP
Here Comes The Airship AT RAMMING SPEED!- Caster uses a charge of a Food consumable in caster's (or the possessor of caster's) possession, said Food consumable does not provide its stated effects, +(The amount of HP damage said consumable Heals or Regenerates, to a maximum of +200,000) Melee or Ranged Attack, with this value being treated as a Damage Value and having its maximum cap raised to 400,000 if used by a non-PC entity, this action may instead use the amount of MP damage said consumable Heals or Regenerates and gain 'deals MP damage' instead, actions involving this ability gain +40% To Hit and may not miss targets below Level 60, Air, 200,000 MP
Steal A Bite From Someone Else's Plate- Caster uses a charge of a Food consumable in target's possession on a target that would be valid for said consumable, Air, 200,000 MP

Well, Zweirugi seems to have come to a fork in the road. He'll equip it for the time being, if only to have 5 weapons equipped. (*Sword of Vashna, Ruinous Sword of Nokhret (Imitation), Fine Procina Blade, *Meru'Kemsei: The Bee-Cutting Knife (Melee Version), Ancient, Partially-Sentient, Spiritually-Empowered Fork From The Old Clavia Tamer District) (2 Base, Knife via Bandolier, Porcina blade via Kindler's arm, Fork via Weaponx0)

He will now continue towards the two entities. Cautiously now that cutlery is involved.

Zwei, new goodies obtained, sets off on his continuing quest to locate the entities!
The passages snake this way and that, presumably providing the former servants of the estate unobtrusive means to get around without having to be seen scurrying about by the place's masters. Another door ahead of him opens at a touch, the unobtrusive portal revealing a huge, elaborate dining hall beyond. Bright 'sunlight' pours through enormous windows filling one wall, affording a magnificent view of what must once have been impressively maintained grounds and gardens, now a jarring mixture of tangled dead wood, randomly-scattered plants and flowers, dried-up water features and odd patches of bare earth.

A long, opulent table, its surface a single, unbroken sheet of white marble with wisping strands of grey flowing (and actually moving) about its surface provides the impression that a strip of overcast sky on a windy day has somehow been cut out and used as an exotic construction material. Extravagantly-engraved silver legs and casings support the surface, and ornate chairs of a similar design with plush blue cushions stand at random intervals about it. Enormous, glittering crystal chandeliers hang from the grandly-designed ceiling above, some sparkling with refracted light from the windows, others radiating a painfully intense glow that hurts the eyes to look upon for too long.

What draws Zwei's attention the most, however, is the blur of motion around the table. Two maid-spirits race clockwise around the dining surface, one rapidly unloading dishes and silverware in neatly-spaced intervals, the other scooping up the dishes and silverware from the opposite side of the table and pitching them up into a whirling mass of crockery, cutlery and cruet hovering above the table like a stormcloud, from which the first maid appears to be pulling her table-supplies. The stone floor around the table has a notable ditch worn in it.
Both maids seem to have faces, although it couldn't be said to be an improvement over Miss Holeface from earlier. One of the maids has her eyes boggling a full foot from her face, her jaw hanging open impossibly wide. The other's face is practically obscured by a forest of forks and knives stabbed into its surface, her mouth the only unobscured part and overflowing with a dark, grainy powder as it rapidly opens and closes. Both are screaming an incomprehensible garble of words and noises.

Neither seem to have noticed Zwei yet.

Zwei takes a moment to access the incredulousness of the situation.

These obviously aren't the children he's looking for, and he's no desire to keep combating insane maids. He'll depart away from here and begin the longer walk towards the final and farther entity.

Zwei carefully exits the scene of serving-madness before him, heading back through the back-passages to the earlier staircase.

Is Zwei heading straight to the final entity's location by the fastest route, or is he going to explore the area and side-rooms somewhat along the way?

At this point his aim is to keep getting these children, although he's pretty sure this torch-tracking method isn't doing him much good at this point, he's going to head towards the last entity.

The sword-man swordsman ascends the staircase, traveling through bare-yet-extravagant hallways and past rooms and doors, some hanging open to reveal oddly-stacked arrangements of furniture, strange flashes of movement, or gaping holes to other rooms or the outside world. Zwei's wish-given knowledge leads him through what was once a huge library, the majority of the shelves now bare or filled with dust, up a tight spiral staircase to a recessed door among the shelves, through another servant's passage and along a circuitous route that involves avoiding a specific set of rooms and halls by way of a series of other rooms that have had parts of their walls removed.

Zwei ascends the final staircase to the estate's solarium. Huge glass windows, held in place with filigreed bands of silver, provide the place with the full measure of the outside 'world's' fake-sunlight. Expensive-looking chaise lounges and seats (some of which lacking cushions and being worn back to bare stone, others barely more than paper-thin skeletons of their former selves) are scattered about the place next to fancy tables in various states of wear and structural integrity. Large planters dot the place, all but one empty or broken, the lone occupied example containing a glossy, dark-leafed orchid with translucent, sapphire-like blossoms. The heat is oppressive.

The place seems to be empty. Zwei is sure of his powers of observation. He is, therefore, very surprised when somebody clears their throat behind him.

Said person provides more than one question to the swordsman's mind, as they prove to have no throat. A man in a deep-blue, silver-trimmed butler's suit with elegant silver-threaded waistcoat, tie and white gloves stands behind Zweirugi, holding a mirror-polished silver platter. He notably is missing his head, the collar of his suit showing little more than a dark hole where the wound (or, indeed, rest of his body) should be.

"Welcome to the estate of Master Castia, sir." The voice is somewhat muffled and hollow. "I'll take your head for you."

One white-gloved hand lifts the lid of the platter. Zwei suddenly finds himself looking at himself standing in the middle of the solarium, sans head.

[Modrageball]

Zweirugi is most befuddled. While this isn't the worst feeling he's had given his sword-nature and the places the blade has been to and stabbed in, this was by no means the most sensible.

"Uh. Oh . . . . You seen any kids around here Mr.-?" He tries to roll his head over to see if he can find any sort of nametag.

I guess from boredom, he'll try to move his "hand" while he's like this. To test the waters.

"Steward, sir." The voice seems to be issuing from somewhere within the space between platter and lid. "We are presently receiving one other guest at the estate. Would you care for some refreshments after I take your head to the cloakroom?"

Zwei attempts to move his hand! His arm kind of... waggles. It's weird. There's some sort of connection still there, but things definitely aren't working properly, or at least are going to require some getting used to before he can get any kind of precision going.

Zweirugi tries to take a more posh tone, "No steward, I wish to surprise the guest, if you can return my head to me for a moment and then take me to them. I will then befuddle them."

If he is returned, Zweirugi will revert to a Sword.

"Tah-daaah! Do you think such a jest just perplexing?"

"Of course, sir."
The lid of the platter clamps shut, Zwei's vision momentarily going dark. He blinks, and once again stands before the butler.

Something seems somewhat amiss, however, as the butler seems rather taller than he recalls him being before the sudden head-removal.
The reason for this quickly becomes apparent as the sword-man realises that he is presently holding his head in his hands. Not in despair (or at least, not in the traditional posture of such), but standing upright, with his head, detached, held at stomach-height.

He puts his head back on like that was his plan all along, and gives the sword-form an attempt.

Zwei replaces his head and turns into a sword! His head then falls to the ground atop his sword-body, which, he notes as the room spins into a blur at his descent, is missing its pommel.
Thankfully (perhaps?) before Zwei can stab himself with himself in himself by accident, the sword-part of him vanishes. A metallic clink echoes from the platter at the same time.

"Very droll, sir. Shall I escort you to our other guest after I store your weapon in the cloakroom for safekeeping?"

Zweirugi rolls his eyes, it's clear this magic was sticking regardless.

"Nah, bring it with, I shalt not be long."

"Very well, sir."

Zwei once again suddenly finds his head on the butler's platter, stacked neatly next to his blade (which appears to somehow fit perfectly on the thing despite being considerably longer than the platter is wide).
Darkness falls as the platter's lid momentarily closes over Zwei's head, followed by a disorientingly dizzy rush of rollercoaster-like vertiginous sensations. Things flicker past the edge of his vision, too fast and too faint for him to properly get a look at.
The platter opens once again, revealing an opulent set of double doors. The butler's gloved hand comes into view and politely knocks.

"I'm afraid our other guest has been rather hesitant to accept our hospitality, despite my assurances that the amenities of Master Castia's estate would surely surpass the cramped comforts provided by their chancel. Perhaps a fellow guest might be better able to make them see the reason in allowing me to keep their head in the cloakroom for safekeeping."

The doors swing open to reveal the remains of an extravagant, if somewhat small, auditorium. Fragments and pieces of what may have, at one point, been musical instruments are stacked neatly atop the stage, arranged in some manner that Zwei can't make any sense out of.
Floating beside them, the strange green-stone shrine-box-thing slowly rotates to face the door.

Zweirugi nods to the shrine.

Zwei nods. This is made somewhat more awkward due to his being only a head, resulting in him faceplanting on the platter.

"Good afternoon once more, sir," the headless butler's voice reverberates from inside the platter. "I have brought another guest to the estate who wished to meet with you. Please, do step out of your chancel, and I will take your head to the cloakroom for you."

The shrine-box rotates on the spot and begins glowing.
"What? N-No!" The voice coming from the floating shrine-box sounds like that of a young boy, but oddly strained. "I told you! I'm not letting you kill me! I... I'm a Spirit Tamer! I command you leave me alone!"

"My apologies, sir." The butler rolls Zwei's head into a more upright position. "Our other guest has been somewhat... recalcitrant."

Zweirugi considers a moment.

"Oh what luck Steward, I actually know this one. This is one of my dear friend Tristan's students. If you could help be back to the entrance and help me put my cloak back on, I can easily help him on his way. Since I know where his friends are waiting for him outside. I think they're looking for him and I don't want them to be waiting overlong."

Zweirugi, given his decapitated state and unliving features, gives his most reassuring smile.

"More visitors waiting outside? Dear me, we can't have that. I'll send someone to fetch them immediately, sir." A jangling, discordant bell echoes from somewhere further inside the estate.

"Y...you know Mr. Doce? And you found the others? Who are you?" The floating shrine-box edges closer to one of the windows to the outside world.

"I came here on Doce's behalf to save you guys, although I've gotten stuck."

He rolls his eyes. Then looks back to the shrine.

"If you have any way to get us out of here though, we can get to your friends before this guy takes them to the uh, ... coat room. Otherwise I can try to manage."

"Um, uh, I don't think this thing has any way to actually... attack stuff. Or has room for more than one person. I could try going through a window with it..."

The platter shifts. "I would recommend against damaging the estate, sir. Further threats to do so will result in steps being taken."

If Zweirugi can still access his blade, "Well, I really wish myself and the boy with his shrine were outside by the group of Tristan's students."

He's doing just that, he's going to burn a wish to try to pop himself and the shrine-boy right outside. Stupid head games be damned he'll figure that detail out later. Swords don't really need heads anyways.

No sooner has Zwei uttered his wish than, with an abrupt pop, he finds his head spinning through the air and landing in the tall grass outside the estate with a dull thud, followed by a clatter as his blade follows suit. His vision is somewhat impaired due to his head landing face-down, providing him with a view of little more than grass roots, moss and earth.

"Gah!"
From the jingle of chain, it seems likely that the exclaimer is Lucern.
"M...mister Zweirugi's head just appeared! I think he's broken!"

"Never mind that, Junkhouse, a spirit just showed up! Get your useless act together and help me drive it off!"

"That... that's not a spirit. That's a chancel."

"I think I know a spirit when I see one, Junkhouse, and I'm going to beat it down and capture--"

"Ferroc?"

"...Curro? What did... did you get yourself eaten by that thing? Get out of it at once!"

"Like I said, it's a chancel. House Relicta has some from the old days. They're made to carry Spirit Tamers around safely in the Spirit World."

"I refuse to believe that such an idiotic--"

"H..he's right. I got told to use it because of my leg so I could move around..."

"Stop fightiiiiiiiiiiiing"

The world spins as someone picks up Zwei's head, treating him to a view of Ferroc arguing with the floating jade shrine-box. Molen appears to have picked up his blade-body.

"Right, let's move, were there any more of you all again?? I lost count." Zweirugi grumbles. He tries to return his blade-self back to the golem-form so that he can at least carry his own head. (and maybe see if it's still possible to smoke after he gets these kids out of here)

"Let's get away from here, that Steward was sending someone to get us."

"Th-ack-there's still my cousin Lyra," the voice from the chancel referred to as 'Curro' says, in a tone that suggests speaking through gritted teeth. "She's stuck in another estate. Th-the housekeeper-spirits there have gone crazy. Think we're the old master's children and wouldn't let us leave. That's how my leg got b...broken. They put me in this when I said I couldn't move, and I got out through a balcony, but Lyra's still in there."

Zwei returns to his humanoid form! This results in Molen awkwardly hugging his body, legs dangling a foot from the ground before the boy lets go.
If he's to guess, given his knowledge of cigarettes, he probably could still smoke. Although his lungs (assuming his golem-self has them) are presently in another part of himself, which might make things a bit tricky. And his body is apparently kind of hard to control with his head separated like that, so getting the cigarettes into his mouth (as opposed to another facial orifice) might be a challenge.

Speaking of hard to control, his arm lashes out, waggles about, and manages to grab his head. Unfortunately, due to the general disconnect, weird-interference due to whatever it is the butler did, and odd delay between thought and motion, this results in Zwei's head being picked up by its nose, the other hand managing to smack his face in the jaw as it attempts to steady itself.
It seems to be a little easier to control his body the closer his head is to his neck. Maybe he could get better with practice? Although he might need a horse for the full effect.

From the general direction of the Castia Estate, a faint babbling fades into the edge of hearing.

"Lead the way, but regardless we're leaving THIS estate, NOW. The wait-staff on this one are actively alerted." He ushers the kids to start moving towards the indicated estate with Lyra, at a light jog if necessary.

Zwei manages to get his body under control enough to corral the children into moving in the general direction of 'away', with Curro's jade-box-chancel proving to be surprisingly fast when it needs to be, the floating shrine leading the way.

The various estates, it turns out, are arranged in a roughly semicircular formation from the entrance wall (not that the wall is at all evident from where the group presently stands, the sky and hills around them looking so real that Zwei has to keep reminding himself that they're actually deep underground). The estate in which Curro indicates Lyra, and until recently he found themselves captive happens to be the one next door.
'Next door' being a relative term, given the sprawling manors' separation from one another by long stretches of 'countryside'. Here and there, more details belie its false nature, the complete absence of sounds of life aside. Here, a lake long-run-dry, the mud at the bottom having patches of stonework showing through and holding peculiar cylindrical canisters on pedestals spaced at regular intervals. There, a stand of twisted and bleached trees, looking more like driftwood sculptures than plants. Here, a hill worn to bare earth, the soil cracked and dry, long since bereft of grass.

The estate the group is led to looks to be in considerably better repair than the last one. Beyond its boundary, a wall of trees turned white with blossoms provide a measure of privacy, with glimpses of the palatial building beyond showing no unusual holes or missing windows in its facade.

"Sh-she's in there," the voice from the chancel states. "Those housekeeper-spirits probably won't want her to leave. I think both of us were given rooms on the second floor, around the back, but I don't know where hers was."

[Modrageball]

Zweirugi will herd the kids around back of the building, making sure to give the place a wide berth to avoid rogue elements.

While debating haphazard flying versus tossing his head up for a better look, he signals to Curro. "Can you fly up high enough to see into the windows?"

The trip around the back of the estate is pretty long, given its extensive grounds and gardens around it. The walls get higher beyond the entrance-area, making it difficult to make out anything over them besides the ever-present line of overhanging, blossoming tree-branches, filling the air with a somewhat heavy, but not oppressive scent.

"I-I'll try."
The green chancel spins on its axis, picking up speed and levitating above the wall, through a number of branches (sending a cascade of white petals raining down on the group), and vanishes from sight through the canopies.

A couple of minutes pass before the flying shrine-box returns, heralded by another shower of petals.
"Th-eghk-the house is pretty far away because of all the gardens, but I think I know which one she's in?"
Curro sounds somewhat unsure.
"The w-hngk-indow I opened to get out is still open, but there's another window on the same floor open that wasn't when I first left. It's nearer the middle."

Zweirugi nods, "Thanks for the info, let me see if I can improve this before heading in."

He's going to stab himself with the Sword of Vashna, converting Cosmic Doctor Fist to a Sword Arts move. He's going to try to cut away this pesky division within him and see if he can properly re-seat his noggin'.

Zwei stabs himself, to the concern of the mini-tamers, channeling a Cosmic Doctor Fist through the blade!
His head abruptly pops back into place. He thinks it might have left something behind, though- although how useful said something might be is... questionable.

Zwei gets:

Detachable Head- (Passive Ability, Doombringer) If possessor is a Horror, Undead, Golem, Clockwork, Machine or Robot, possessor may choose to ignore an instance of Wounded: Disassembled or Wounded: Sawn Apart inflicted on possesser at the time of infliction, instead taking up an extra space in possessor's side of battle's Row Formation, with possessor not being able to ignore subsequent inflictions of Wounded in this manner unless the additional row-space effect from this ability no longer applies; possessor may spend an action to remove the row-space effect from this ability

Zweirugi cracks his neck, making sure it's there tight.

"Right," he says triumphantly as he ignite his furious wings, "you all stay here and stay hidden."

He lifts into the air and heads over to middle suspicious window.

Zwei takes flight, bursting through the canopy of white-blossomed branches to hop the barrier to the estate!

This one, it seems, is more of a stately home in design, rather than the hole-filled hodgepodge of manor and towers the previous one was. It looks to be in a considerably better state of repair than the other one, too, its sandy-cream-coloured walls free of holes and marks, its windows all seemingly intact and housed in impressively-carved casings, each an elaborate feat of architecture in itself.
The house itself is large and symmetrical- a large central building with two wings spreading from it, ending in two just-as-large outer buildings, all topped with a tall, pale-green tiled roof. The entire structure stands apart from the grounds atop a large patio, stairways leading from it to the gardens below beneath the elevated patio's wall, where once upon a time waterfalls must have flowed down, if the now-dry fountain basins are any indication.

The gardens separating Zwei from the back of the house are themselves extensive, and again in considerably better condition than the last place. Wide, lush lawns surround colourful flowerbeds and shrubberies, pergolas and minor follies. The water features are, however, long gone- pools and fountains dry and bare, with only those strange canisters left at the bottom of them.

During his rapid flight across the oddly intact grounds, the sword-man does indeed spy the open window in question- one of only two such, closer to the central building than the other (which is, presumably, where Curro was stuck in).
As he peers in, he can see that the interior is... pink. Very pink. It looks very much like a rich little girl's room, with an extravagant four-poster bed with layers of frilly curtains pulled back, plush pink seats, a fancy dressing-table with a large set of mirrors, and dolls. Dolls everywhere. Shelves of them. Boxes of them. Sat on the seats. Lying on the bed. Stood on the floor.

Zwei thinks he can hear something like laughter, as if from a long way away, from a very large number of little girls, just on the edge of hearing.

Zweirugi glares with hatred as it dawns on him the very likely option of what he's hearing.

"Dolls."

He will listen closely for a moment more. If nothing further is distinguishable, he'll knock softly on the wall next to the window a few times and position himself not in plain view.

Further listening reveals nothing more than the ongoing, constant babble of just-audible laughter, at times overlapping in itself in a ceaseless flow of downright creepy background noise.
Zwei knocks on the wall, positioning himself to one side of the window. The laughter briefly raises in volume and, just as abruptly, stops.

A discordant, just-out-of-unison chorus of sing-song voices issue from within the room.
"Whoo~oo iiii~iiiiis iiiii~iiiiiit?"

The babble of laughter starts up once more, this time accompanied by undertones of clacking, rattling and rustling. The sound grows louder and more distinct, getting closer to the window, and oh dear gods.
A huge ball of dolls, all attached to one another by some invisible force, emerges from the open window. Hundreds of little eyes flutter open as the thing rocks from side to side, spinning wildly as the mass extends further from the aperture, discordant little-girl-laughter growing louder and clearer as it does so.
All abruptly fix with a clack on the swordsman. The ball shifts direction, rotating towards Zwei as it does so.
It has two large holes in the doll-created surface.

The laughter gets even louder. A third hole splits the ball from side to side below the first two, curving upwards and growing in size, almost meeting the eyes.

Then it hits him. It's not a ball.

It's a huge head made of dolls.

Clatter. CLACK. CLACK.

Two large masses emerge from the room, clamping against the windowsill as the doll-head-of-dolls continues to laugh.
Two large masses split into five sections.
Two large hands made of dolls, all with spinning eyes that fixate on Zwei as soon as they emerge.

The discordant, sing-song voice, still backed with the increasingly-splintered background laughter rings out once more.
"Iiiiiii~iiiiii seeee~eeeeeeee yooooooooo~oooouuuuuuuu"

Zweirugi reflexively kicks off of the wall and floats out into the air a bit from the window. He brow furrows as he tries to play it cool.

"Oh no! You found me! Perhaps you're good enough at finding things to help me find what I've lost! Can you help me?"

The chorus of overlapping giggling intensifies.


"He's lost somethiii~iiiing"
                                                                                                         "He's lost somethiii~iiiing"
                                                "He's nooo~ooot human"
           "Not a Taaaa~aaamerrrr"
                                                                                                                                          "Maybe he's lost his ownee~eeer"
                                                                 "Maaaa~aaaybe"
                                                                                      "Maybe he should jooo~ooiiiin uuuuus"
"There's aaaa~aaaalways room for more"
                                                                                                                                    "Aaaa~aaaalwaaaa~aaaaaays"


The laughter abruptly stops. The giant-head-of-dolls' 'mouth' splits yet wider, darkness in the space beyond.

                                               "Time to plaaaa~aaaaaaay"

The entire mass explodes outwards from the window, launching itself at Zwei in a clacking, rattling, rustling, giggling mass. He's got enough time to react, though.

Zweirugi is going to wingover into an immelmann upwards in an attempt to use mundane gravity to spread some distance!

"Ah shit"

Zwei spin-flips himself into an evasive aerial manoeuvre, speeding away from the estate as more dolls boil up from within the place! Surely there can't have been that many in the room. The whole thing has taken the form of some ungodly oversized serpent-baby made of dolls, whipping from the window and snaking out to chase the sword-man, the thing's face still split with that abomination of a grin and issuing torrents of garbled giggling laughter, sing-song voices swept up in an incomprehensibly mashed-together cacophony, and some horrific atonal background noise that might possibly, in some awful, benighted worlds, be considered singing in something attempting a harmony.

He's fast enough to outpace it. He's also fast enough to veer out of the way of a sudden vibrating mass of air that turns into a hideous laughter-burst in front of him, a few dolls with spinning, vibrating eyes and disturbing grins popping out of the same patch of thin air at the same time and erratically spin-flittering about like deranged moths.

Zweirugi gets an idea. It's clear that things in this particular corner of the realm are getting out of hand for his current power.

But ...

They aren't out of hand for the power of this realm. Zweirugi, is going to shift into an active parrying style as he zooms away. He's going to try to maintain a range that keeps him a hard to hit target from the vibrating-dimensional-moth-warp-baby-doll-attacks while keeping the main mass on it's tail.

He is going to try to lead the thing around where he knows the kids are hiding, but back towards the last mansion.

Zwei swoops and soars, dodges and dives, doing his best to maintain a distance from the doll-mass while leading it on and out of the estate.
The thing seems somewhat reluctant to leave the confines of the area, but he eventually manages, through a couple of far-too-close-for-comfort flybys, to goad it into following him.

Leaving the estate seems to make it kick its game up a notch, though. Not only does he have to dodge weird doll-spawning warp-laughter, but he very nearly gets caught in a variety of things he's sure would be detrimental. Once, the whole countryside flickers to an obviously flat, boxy, painted version before he outpaces whatever it is that the dollswarm was doing. Earth tears as more dolls erupt from the ground to catch him. Horrible sensations of dread snatch at his heels as some malevolent effects or other miss him by barely a hair. All the while, the constant, ongoing babble-song-laughter rings out and echoes off itself as he tears across the artificial landscape to his goal.
The significantly less-whole form of the Castia Estate eventually hoves into view, gaping, smoothed holes far more visible from his aerial viewpoint and providing strange cross-sections and glimpses into chambers and hallways from the outside.

The dolls are almost on him, but then he's managed to (if only just) maintain that state since he left the other estate.

"You've got the speed, but with that form can you match my agility?" The swordsman ticks in his arms and barrels into the mansion. Given his wish mapping and past searching he's going to zoom in, past where he left the maid and where he left the butler, going to where he got the fork and existing through the hole in that room out the back.

He's notably giving decent distance around the butler, since he's trying to avoid that date again. His wings are powered by his fury, and given the original goal of this mission to what it's become, he's getting a gargantuan bit of it.

Zwei tucks in his arms, furls his wings, and dive-barrels into the Castia Estate, swooping through a hole into an open hallway and using his wish-granted knowledge of the butler and the maids he located to allow him a swift passage through the once-opulent halls, through the dining hall and out.

Things do not go entirely to plan.
He swoops into the estate at blazing speed, windows and walls blurring past him as he corkscrews his way through the halls. His passage is suddenly interrupted, however, by the windows ahead of him bursting inwards and disgorging a huge clouds of babbling, giggling dolls.
A brief glance behind him comfirms the worst.

"WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME "
The thing(s?) split itself into two groups to catch him in a pincer attack.
A constricting length of ribbon lashes out to tangle and immobilise him, issuing, unpleasantly, from the 'mouth' of the first doll-mass.
"WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME "
"Caaaaaaaa~aaauuuuuuught yooooo~oooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuu"

The thing mass-giggles as it begins reeling Zwei in.

"Now he can jooooiiiii~iiiin us"
                                                                                                         "We can play aaaaa~aaaaallll daaaa~aaaaay long"
"WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME "

                                             "Aaaaa~aaaaallll daaaaa~aaaaaay"
     "Forever and eeeee~eeeeverrrrr"
"WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME"

The second mass shifts as if trying to look behind itself, forming a second baby-doll-like head as it turns.

                                                                                                                           "I hear more friiiiiieeeeee~eeeeeends"
                                                              "They can joii~iiiiiin us tooooooooooo~oooooooooooo"
"WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME WELCOME"
"WELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOME"
"WELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOME
WELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOME
WELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOME
WELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOME
WELCOMEWELCOME
WELCOME
WELCOME
WELCOME
WELCOME
WELCOME"

What follows catches all involved considerably off-guard as, instead of coming from the end of the hall or a doorway, the floor abruptly explodes into splinters as a gigantic, flowing mass of familiar-looking maids erupts from within the estate's lower floors, each body apparently attached or shifting in such a manner that it appears to be an almost solid, contiguous bloblike entity. All of the maids, some with holes instead of faces, some with features stabbed through with cutlery, or stuffed with broken masonry and wood, or without heads at all scream in terrifying, perfect, welcoming unison as the mass spews forth, slams into Zwei and the dollswarm (dealing Moderate damage), and becomes a crazed maid-based tidal wave that begins hurtling everything back up the hallway in the other direction.

Zweirugi is going to grit it and using the ensuing chaos, try to hurriedly find a chance to Colossus Hurl himself with his three arms away from this conflict. His now forky-friend being ordered to feed the doll-head restraining him it's own ribbon to loosen it up on his end, as best it can.

Zwei rolls with the escalating chaos, introducing a spoke (or rather, a fork) into the dollswarm's plans. The spiritually-empowered cutlery gets to work winding itself around the ribbon and rapidly spinning it into a spool, shooting off into the rattling, giggling darkness of the dollswarm's 'head' with it. Something in there gives, and Zwei finds himself with enough slack to struggle out of his bonds and hurl himself, full force, through a rapidly-approaching window, taking Minor damage in the process.

Spinning through the air, Zwei find that the Castia Estate, at least on this side, appears to be leaking. A slightly-more-than-cursory examination (as much as one could be given, under the circumstances) suggests that it's leaking maids. Maidblob-tendrils. Whatever the absolute hell that thing is.
The building shakes as a loud crash announced the maidblob's (and accompanying dollswarms') presumable running out of hallway to tidal-wave itself through, followed by a series of crashes and shattering noises as more windows smash open to pour out more screaming congealed maids.

Something skitters and flashes through the air, curving round to rejoin Zwei. His fork, it seems, has survived the encounter. The Estate, on the other hand, may not, or at the very least the staff may not end up being contained within the premesis for too much longer.

Zweirugi nods approvingly to the fork, "Nice work."

He picks it from the air to re-bandolier it, and will make haste back to the dolls' room to try to locate that last kid.

Zwei takes off at speed (as another building-shaking crash issues from behind him, the maid-shrieks rising into a horrible, wailing chorus), winging his way back across the false-countryside as rapidly as possible to the Other Estate, skimming bare hilltops and raising puffs of dust and shredded grass in his wake. Back through the bleached-wood stands of trees he goes, over the blossoming canopies surrounding the palatial building (the mini-tamers still visible, tracking his entry route), over the extensive lawns, dry pools and lakes, colourful flowerbeds and decorative outbuildings, back to the window to the pink monstrosity of a room he saw before.

No edge-of-hearing laughter can be heard from the interior this time. The frilly explosion of ruffles and lace lies silent, bare of dolls.
It is also, unfortunately, lacking in small Spirit Tamers.

Then again, given his personal experience with the room's prior occupants, perhaps it's somewhat understandable Lyra didn't want to stick around in it.

[Modrageball]

Zweirugi will call for them, hoping that they didn't die to the doll-blob by virtue of some manner of stealth.

"Hello? Is there a spirit tamer here? I was sent by Tristan to find you all!"

Zwei calls into the empty (at least with regards to visible occupants) room. The room remains resolutely silent and frilly.
There doesn't seem to be any sign of a struggle inside, however (and from what he saw beforehand, none of the dolls looked like they were disturbed- although given their ambulatory nature, that isn't a guarantee of anything).

A serving bell jangles from somewhere further inside the building, as if in response to his call. Zwei can just about make out slow, muffled footsteps from outside the room approaching the door.

Zweirugi will pull the oldest trick in the book, and hides in the closet, just in case.

Zwei quickly jumps into the closet, pulling the door shut behind him.
Well. There's certainly a lot of... robes in here. While the room's decor would suggest the wardrobes would be stuffed full of hideous confections of lace and ribbon, it turns out that the contents are actually near-identical to what the mini-tamers outside are wearing.

The sword-man hears the door open, a constant stream of barely-audible muttering becoming audible with it.
"--goodness me no, can't be having with that, not right that they'd just leave us all alone again so soon after returning, has to be just a prank, just a prank, just a prank, just a prank, just a prank, just a prank, he'll be right back for his sister I'm sure, we're sure, she'll be right here, she'll be right here, she will, yes, that's right, they won't go anywhere, we'll just have to make even more sure he can't get out next time, yes, that's what we'll have to do, maybe the arms next--
The voice raises into a loud, cheery (perhaps far too cheery) sing-song shout.

"Oh young masterrrr, have you come back after enjoying yourself outside? Do come back in for dinner, it's getting cold and your sister's waiting for you at the dining table! You wouldn't want her to be left all alone, now, would you?"

The slow, muffled footsteps start up again as someone shuffles about the room.

"Now, now, no more games! I know I heard you in here, so there's no sense in hiding! If we delay any more, I will have to get cross!"

The shuffling steps begin to approach the closet.

Zweirugi figures if the robes are suspicious and still manage to be here, how bad could a sword be? He will revert to his sword-form in the corner of the closet, hoping his dormant nature will cause him to be overlooked.

Zwei swords himself, tucking himself away in the corner of the closet behind the hanging robes!
Not a moment later, the door sweeps open and someone begins rummaging through the hanging clothes. Zwei gets a few brief glimpses through the flapping fabrics of a plump, matronly-looking woman in a long, old-fashioned housekeeper's dress and flowing apron. Something seems distinctly off about her, though. Maybe it's the way that each of her limbs seems to be being piloted just out-of-synch and independently of one another. Or maybe it's the wide, jolly grin plastered on a face with eyes that look like they're contemplating murder.
Fortunately, it seems like the woman(?) hasn't spotted the sword in the corner, having been looking (presumably) for something larger, possibly child-shaped. Or flying-jade-box-shaped.

The too-cheery voice rings out again as she turns to look around the room. Being this close, this time Zwei can hear something under the jolly tones, like a second person saying the same words at the same time in perfect unison with the first.
The under-voice isn't cheery.
It isn't cheery at all.
"Young masterrrrrr, if you continue playing games like this you'll miss dinner completely and be quite famished by bedtime! And we can't be having any more midnight escapades, now, can we?"

The housekeeper shuffles her way towards the frilly bed, still showing that strange, disconnected-piloting-of-limbs movement. Something else is off, too. Her movement across the room doesn't match the steps she's taking.

"Your sister must be getting quite hungry indeed waiting for you! She's not going to wait forever!"

Zweirugi just keeps quiet. He has had enough of out of control waitstaff today, and messing with this lady seems like more of the medicine he's already gotten.

Remaining silent, the sword-man is treated to more under-the-breath mutterings in a cheery/threatening tone interspersed with loud shouts for the 'young master' as the 'woman' potters around the room, looking under the bed, inside cabinets and finally out of the window in an attempt to locate the non-present Spirit Tamer-in-training.

Finding nothing, she rotates- not turns, actually rotates on the spot without moving a muscle- and disconnectedly-shuffle-glides out of the room, smile still beaming and eyes still murderous. Zwei hears her muffled, odd footsteps shuffle off down the hall and out of earshot before the room returns to its silent, resolutely frilly state from before.

Zweirugi gives her the ten second rule before leaving his form.

He looks around the room with a whisper, "Hello? Any students of Tristan's here?"

Zwei's whispered call goes unanswered.

It occurs to him that, assuming the 'housekeeper' wasn't completely insane, that the 'sister' she mentioned as sitting at the dining table waiting for the 'young master' may, in fact, be another Spirit Tamer. And given the apparent ancient age of the estates and the underground city they reside in, combined with the single missing (and female) young Tamer left to find, it would follow that this 'sister' may, in fact, be the last student he's searching for.

Or possibly the insane staff have dressed up a long-dead corpse and insisted on treating it as a living person. Given what he's seen thus far, that wouldn't be too far out of the realm of possibility.

Zweirugi fires up his wings and will hover above the ground. He's going to float to the other bedroom(?) facing this side to double check Curro's work, then will try to make his way to the Dining Room.

A quick flight out of the dread Domain of Frills and to the only other open window he spotted reveals that it does, indeed, lead to a bedroom. This one, however, is decorated in more muted tones of blue and cream, with bookshelves in place of the doll-shelves the other room had, a few volumes here and there mixed with small boxes or unusually-shaped rocks (one or two, Zwei notes, seeming to move as he peers in). The bed here is also a four-poster, although its curtains lack the frills and the thing as a whole is considerably more sensibly designed, presumably to fit its original (and presumably male) occupant's tastes. Pieces of paper with scribbled notes and drawings lie on the desk, a few crumpled balls of paper lying here and there around it.

Zwei seeks the Dining Room! How is he going about it? Will he be attempting to do so from inside the house, or from its exterior? (Or perhaps through other means entirely?)

Zweirugi will examine the papers, seeing if maybe they allow any insight as to what's going on in this realm.

Unless the papers hold crucial notes, Zweirugi will try the outside, thinking it's really likely the Dining Room has windows, and the wait staff might not being going outside. (also would make it easier to hear for the dolls in the event they return)

The papers look to be scribbled, partial maps (drawn rather poorly) of the estate, with lines and arrows leading in and out of areas. The words 'way out?' are written at the end of most of such routes. Presumably, this was Curro's work before he got the Chancel to move around in (and quite possibly an indication towards the reason why his leg was broken in the first place).
A few of the rooms have names scribbled on them, like 'My Room' and 'Lyra's Room', which seem to somewhat-relate to the places Zwei has been already, albeit with a poor sense of scale being displayed. Others are marked with notes such as 'bedroom', 'library', 'seats', 'music room?', 'NO' and 'locked', with a few simply having scribbled areas with words like 'basement?' or 'more house?' written beside them.
'Dining Room' catches Zwei's attention, although the map is incomplete and badly-drawn enough that he can't tell where it is in the house besides being on the ground floor somewhere.
Still, this gives him a place to start.

Diving back out of the window, the sword-man swordsman flits along the ground floor, peering through wide, tall windows to the interior of the manor. The place is, much as its exterior suggests, in far better shape than the other estate. No holes worn through walls or floors, carpets and fixtures all still present, cabinets and tables lining the walls and not polished down to stumps. Quite a few walls hold large, impressive paintings, although their surfaces seem to shift oddly as he looks at them. One seems to be manifesting a constant cloud of billowing petals being blown through it, as if it were an open window into the depiction of the estate's grounds and its border of blossoming trees.
Maids and butlers occasionally pass the windows, Zwei managing to barely avoid notice and having a couple of hairy moments where an impassively-faced woman in an apron walks with a familiarly odd, disconnected gait to a window to stare out at the grounds. While he can't quite get the best feel for them, it seems that the staff are, for want of a better term, in somewhat variable states of repair. Some move with the alien, one-limb-at-a-different-interval-from-the-others, disconnected-from-the-ground glide-walk that the jolly/murderous housekeeper did, while others move in manners more approaching normalcy. Some have the expression of one who has checked out of reality entirely, looking like little more than vacant dolls piloting themselves around aimlessly, while others are in various states of cheeriness (forced or otherwise), with the occasional murder-stare or, in one worrying instance attached to a butler, 'apoplectic rage'.
The uniforms are somewhat different from the last estate, too, more reserved and refined. Thankfully, none of them appear to be sticking cutlery in their faces, scrubbing their faces off or otherwise suffering the same level of catastrophic bodily cohesion failure the maids of the Castia Estate displayed.

It takes stealthily sneak-flying to one of the wings of the building to find what it is he's looking for. A vast room, easily taking up the breadth (although obviously not the entire length) of one end of the wings' ground floor, the dining room is a truly spectacular edifice of shining, polished marble floors, glittering gilded scrollwork along the walls and ceilings, richly-embroidered curtains and wide, clear, ornate windows opening onto the manor grounds and letting in the false-sunlight to reflect off the copious amounts of mirror-polished marble and metalwork within. Enormous chandeliers, all perfectly preserved and sparkling, hang from the ceilings as gilt cages of crystals, casting little rainbows that play among the elaborate sculpted details surrounding them.

Within the room, dwarfed by its surroundings despite being easily long enough to seat fifty, a long table stands, covered in an immaculate white tablecloth and set with candelabras and flowering centerpieces at regular intervals. Only two seats are present at the table, both high-backed affairs of gold and deep blue velvet, one on each end with a forest of shining cutlery and glittering array of crystal bowls and glasses set about them.
In the chair at the far end, a small figure in a familiar white robe and veiled, flat-conical hat sits, a dispassionate butler and maniacally-grinning maid stood at either side. Further beyond that, behind the chair, a series of servants stand motionless, white cloths draped over an arm each, an almost parodically-exact picture of the perfect waitstaff.

Zweirugi is going to go for the gusto and totally not use a move that was pulled in a recent megaquest.

The swordsman is going to place his hand near and ready to open the window, by force if needed. He then will calm himself, light an infinity stick to boost his perception, still his nerves, and increase his to-hit. He takes aim with his free hands and reaches into the void!

He will be using his unarmed training, sword training, and sword arts training to use a sword-arts-turned (via the Sword of Vashna) Colossus Hurl with Cut through Space to launch the unsuspecting tamer at the window with accuracy and his Assassin training. He will then make sure the path is clear and catch the poor kid with his three arms if needed.

He's well aware of the waitstaff's capabilities, he's going to immediately ascend the heck out of there whether this succeeds or fails. If he gets the kid he'll immediately assure them that he's on their side and Tristan sent them.

Combining his (surprisingly) Adept-tier of Unarmed Technique Knowledge with an Expert-level understanding of Sword Arts and Swords in general, combined with the ability to cut through the fabric of space itself and further focused through some seriously potent cigarettes, Zwei reaches through to grab the small Tamer and launch them through a spell generally reserved for pulverising targets through excessive collision-force.

Fortunately, Zwei has something of a handle on how to finesse things such that he doesn't outright kill his target through overwhelming force of velocity.
Also fortunately, the sudden and unexpected spectacle of their questionably-willing dinner guest getting launched at speeds comparable to most light aircraft through a (suddenly torn-off-its-hinges) window was something that none of the waitstaff appear to have been prepared for. By the time they react, Zwei has already grabbed the robed child and begun ascending at speed.

A minor wrinkle in events surfaces when it becomes soon apparent that the rescued party is completely unresponsive to the blazing swordsman's assurances of his intentions. As best he can guess, given the robes and concealing hat, the girl has probably fainted due to the sudden extreme-velocity-launching towards the windows from a sitting start.

The sound of glass breaking filters through from below.

((In retrospect, I should figured a girl was less durable than a hammer.))

Zweirugi will take wind and beeline to the other kids. Docter Leon Kindler's Undying Arm in conjunction with Cosmic Doctor Fist will make work on making sure the kid is all right.

He also will burn up the rest of his cigarette, can't be smoking in front of the kids. Once he's back, he's doing one heck of a roll call.

Zwei, using the care and attention doubtless shown by all of the best medical professionals, ensures that the child in his arms is restored to proper health through the tender care-giving technique of punching her with an undead, extraneously-grafted arm using the power of SPAAAAAAACE.

This goes exactly as well as Zwei intended, despite how it might look to outside observers. She's reacting pretty slowly, though, at least to the sword-man swordsman's eyes. That's probably something to do with the likely-considerable level discrepancy between them.
The grounds of the manor speed past below him, the blossom-laden branches of the trees forming the estate's border a white blur as he descends over and past them, landing in front of the gaggle of mini-tamers with enough force to bowl one of them (Ferroc? It's probably Ferroc) over.

He's just about to start issuing a roll-call when a crash of branches and cascade of petals heralds the entry of the maniacally-grinning maid, or at least the front half of her, prompting a chorus of screams from the children. On the plus side, it looks like she's struggling to get past the boundary formed by the wall and trees. On the minus side, she does seem to be able to get her arms across, and she looks like she's trying to drag herself over.
Another crash heralds the almost-comedically-impassive face of the butler popping over the wall alongside the maid, his arms also beginning to reach over the boundary.

Well.

Tristan said there were six kids in all. One, two, three, four, box, six. Probably good enough.

"Right, we need to leave now."

Zweirugi grabs the three smallest with his three arms and tells the larger boy that he needs to hold onto Zwei. The Shrine needs to fly itself and lead the way out if it knows. If he doesn't know, Zweirugi's going to wish for knowledge of the safest route out.

Zwei grabs the three smallest of the bunch- the little Bellis, the still-groggy Lyra, and Molen. Ferroc shoves Lucern out of the way to jump on Zwei's back.

This rather leaves Lucern in the lurch. Fortunately, Curro seems amenable to trying to carry him atop the Chancel, although he warns that he's not the best at piloting it fast.

Thus laden with children, both Zwei and flying shrine-box-thing head off as fast as possible. It seems the Chancel is, in fact, pretty damn fast when it needs to be. More surprisingly, Lucern seems to be doing rather well at balancing on top of the thing's 'roof' even at speed, and stays resolutely clung to its sloped jade top even when the thing has to perform a rapid spin-turn to correct for direction.

Curro does indeed seem to know the way back. Whether this is due to his previous explorations in box-mode, or due to the roads leading from the various estates dotted about- Zwei thinks he counts five in all, arranged in something of a semi-circle- leading back to the ornate, false facade of the temple, the huge and ornate doors still hanging open into the large hall beyond.
A muffled, splintering crash echoes from the hills behind the group, somewhere from the direction of the estate they just escaped from.

[Modrageball]

Zweirugi offers a sarcastic prayer that the damage of unleashing the dolls against the wait staff isn't more than would have been caused by the eventual decay of the estates anyways.

Now thinking about it, Zweirugi reaches down with his teeth and undoes the bandolier pouch button holding the fork, just in case he needs to order it to catch Lucern. (Oddly, he can order the fork to do it's primary purpose of carrying the child to his mouth so he can sloppily carry him by the robe, worst comes to worst.)

The group will carry on and Zwei's going to keep vigilance as they go. Particularly wary of the place he undid those seals.

The group continues to set off at speed towards the open temple doorway. Lucern is still proving to be surprisingly adept at staying atop the Chancel, which continues to be oddly fast. Perhaps it's of a Level comparable to Zwei? Which would be peculiar, as the kids are all, from what he's seen thus far, barely out of the single digits, levelwise.

Zwei readies the fork and performs some quick manoeuvres to check behind him, spotting the worryingly familiar form of the maniacally-grinning maid flying after the group, albeit a considerable distance behind. Her arms and legs flap and buffet in the slipstream, her entire body seemingly pulled onward by her head.
Of the butler and the other waitstaff, there is presently no sign.

The doorway looms closer. Zwei thinks he and the kids should be able to get through it before the maid catches up, barring unfortunate happenstance.

"Remember kids, the most important step is to get your foot in the door."

Zweirugi brings his right leg close to his chest, the limb below the knee transforming into a blade. He was the Sword of Vashna. It was him all along!

He holds the kids tight and does a quick forward flip, the blade slicing through the air. Not in the physical sense though, but the metaphysical one. Zweirugi uses Cut through Space and Colossus Hurl on himself this time, demolishing the space in front of him and the Chancel, catapulting them forward to the door in a gambit that it'll be their salvation from the cleanly force of destruction in their wake. The fork is specifically released to help balance Lucern for this.

Zwei was the sword! He was the sword all along! Combining his power to Cut Through Space with his Colossus Hurl technique, Zwei simultaneously cuts the distance between himself, the Chancel and the doorway and hurls himself forward!

The result is spectacular, although almost certainly not in the way Zwei envisioned.

Space is cleaved 'tween sword-man and Chancel, and cut away before the both of them at the same time the living blade hurls himself forward.
Perhaps he was too hasty in cleaving away the distance.
Perhaps he just isn't having luck with Colossus Hurl.
Perhaps the Chancel isn't quite so easy to move.
Perhaps the children he carries affects his balance.

Whatever the reason, space vanishes as it is sliced away, providing Zwei with a magnificent opportunity to examine the intricate spiritual symbology carved into the surface of the jade shrine-box's walls in the split-second before his face impacts it, catapulting himself, the (screaming) children and the box into and straight through the temple doorway and beyond, the galleried, open hallway and its doors blurring as the Chancel is face-propelled at high speed straight through the temple, through the huge hall-arch beyond, through the beginnings of a hastily-constructed barrier (that shatters with the force with which it is impacted), through the open courtyard beyond with its collection of guardian lion-dog statues, and into the false sky-wall above the huge red-and-gold door on the far side with bone-crushing force. The Chancel embeds itself partway into the wall, great chunks of stone cracking and crumbling away, leaving a rocky dent in the otherwise somewhat-convincing facade of an outside world.

A somewhat familiar high-pitched giggle-cackle echoes through the air. Rather than impacting against the wall with enough force to splatter them, the children (or at least, those not currently inside boxes) are, instead, suddenly standing on the ground outside the exit-doorway.

A low, rumbling chorus of groggy growls begin to roll out from among the statuary of the courtyard, the lion-dogs on plinths slowly and jerkily shifting position to face the aftermath of the high-speed face-propelled disaster-train.

((I'm rather confused as to the order these ended up in, is it now Exit -> Dogs -> Kids -> Barrier -> Zwei -> Meido?))

Zwei and the kids are now at the exit-door (the one leading to the stairs back up to the farming-level) on the far side of the temple courtyard from the temple itself, with the Chancel (and its pilot) being embedded in the wall above the door. The awakening lion-dog statues are in the courtyard. The (broken) barrier is in front of the temple. The incoming maid has presumably not yet reached the temple from the fake-countryside end (although given her speed, this isn't likely to remain the case for long).

In other words:

(Maid?)
(Temple)
(Barrier)
(Dogs in Courtyard)
(Zwei and Kids)
(Exit and technically Chancel with Curro in it)

Zweirugi has a lapse of censorship and swears.

He grabs the kids in a big group hug and will make for the exit. They've all overstayed their welcome, the dogs can play with the Maid if they really want.

Zwei is pretty easily able to hug-tackle the majority of the kids through the double doors from the false courtyard into the stairwell beyond, but it swiftly becomes apparant that the boxy, flying jade shrine containing Curro isn't following.

"H-heeeeelllp"
Oh. Maybe he's still stuck in the wall.
"It's n-not coming loose!"
Thanks to his finely-honed detective skills, Zwei comes to the solid conclusion that yes, it is most likely that he is indeed stuck in that wall.

Zweirugi, still anxious with the haste of potentially the victor of the Maid vs Lion match of the century coming after them, flies back and tries to use his free foot to nudge the mobile shrine loose from the wall.

The sword-man swordsman, arms still bundled with robed and veiled children, leaps back out, and gives the shrine a nudge with his foot. Then a kick. Then a jump-up-and-down-godsdammit-this-thing-is-really-stuck-in-there.

Speaking (or rather, thinking) of the potential staff-vs-statuary smackdown, a chorus of angry roars sound out from the temple-side of the courtyard, followed shortly by the sound of breaking stone and splintering wood.

At almost the same moment, Curro's voice frantically issues from the chancel.
"I-I'm going to try something!"

Shortly thereafter, the world starts to blur as the flying jade shrine starts spinning rapidly in place, shattering the false-sky-on-stone wall it was previously embedded in and forcing Zwei to grip onto its sloped rooftop with his knees in an awkward, semi-kneeling position.
Fortunately, his training in the monk arts have come with a wealth of knowledge on how to build and apply both grip strength and grapples.
Unfortunately, this means he presently has to perceive the world as a mad, spinning blur as the thing spirals out of the wall, bounces off the floor, and goes careening up the grand crimson-and-gold-filigreed staircase, torches bursting to light as the frantically rotating mob twists their way upwards at speed, the murals too blurred through the method of travel to make out.

Very, very shortly afterwards the group bursts through the open doorway on the upper-far end of the glassy-tiled hall and into the large, overgrown, debris-strewn circular chamber that acted as the hub of the 'countryside' area(s?), the central stairwell-containing tower still standing as it was where he left it amid the still, rot-scented air. At least, that's what the big blurry thing turns out to be once the chancel slows its spin to something more managable.

The place seems to be thankfully free of further murderous fruitcarts or other unpleasant hazards of a spiritual nature.

Several of the childern in Zwei's arms let out queasy groans.

"Guh, whaaaa-"

Zweirugi takes a moment to scan the area and to give the kids a moment to catch up.

After that moment, he's gonna keep flying back the way he came. He'll put the kids down if they get through this next area with no further encounters. And promptly proceed to get himself another Infinity Stick™ while grumbling that he's gonna give Vashna an earful after this is over.

Sounds filter out from the open double-doors the group emerged from in unfortunate rotational style. Whatever's going on back there, it doesn't sound like anyone's having a fun time of it. He thinks he can hear weird rattling noises along with the breaking stone, and a lot of odd, muffled screaming.
"CLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANING
CLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANINGCLEANING"

...it's probably nothing to worry about.

The kids begin to make their way up the long, dark staircases to the 'city'-level of the underground complex, with Zwei taking point and easily outpacing them (helped, in part, by his ability to fly). He quickly flies up and through the small pavilion acting as the housing for the top of one of the stairwells and into the huge, hexagonal chamber beyond, the multi-storey building 'walls' of the... loading district? rising to meet him, the carved and painted fake-sky far less realistic than the illusion he saw in the estate-level, with a circular sun-disc shedding additional illumination amidst a group of four other decorative discs depicting cloudy skies. Scattered remnants of carts still lie strewn about the place

Something nags at Zwei. Something seems to be different about this place.

Zweirugi considers for a moment and cracks his neck. He draws up his blades and then sweeps them in a large arc, a burst of mana sweeping out across the enclosure. Zweirugi is using the scan on the Sword of Vashna's attacks to essentially try to sonar ping the place.

(Sweeping Slash (MP Healing) (using only the Sword of Vashna to minimize effect))

One creative combination of ideas later, and the Magic Healing Sonar Wave is unleashed to feel out the place!

Sure enough, he gets a response, although probably not from the direction he expected:

Sky Disc (Spirit, Level 45)
Sky Disc of Arden (Spirit, Level 50)
Sky Disc of Canta (Spirit, Level 50)
Sky Disc of Cintho (Spirit, Level 50)
Sky Disc of Vernat (Spirit, Level 50)

It seems like those decorative discs on the ceiling aren't supposed to be there. They're all pinging as spiritual (and slightly golem-y) entities. The Sky Disc seems to be able to flip between 'night' and 'day' modes, creating and/or inverting Zones of Light and Darkness and attacking with the element appropriate to the face it's showing along with localised weather-based effects and attacks. The other four are all based off moons of Seirei, able to create and remove the appropriate-element Zones (Fire/Light/Metal, Water/Ice/Flux, Air/Sonic/Crystal, Earth/Wood/Life) and manipulate their moons' elements pretty freely to a variety of effects. Depending on which face counts as being 'flipped', they can either have more control over the element(s) in question, or use area-of-effect weather-ish attacks and techniques.

The MP-wave also seems to have gotten their attention. The quintet of discs detach from the ceiling and begin to descend towards the floor.

On one hand, Zweirugi on level alone should be able to knock these out.

On the other, that doesn't mean the kids will make it unharmed, nor to mention Zweirugi's various depletion of various resources he'd drawn on if he got in a pinch.

"I mean, I guess we can see about making friends at this point?"

Zweirugi's gonna opt for an unusual approach on his part, and play the role of a spirit tamer, although not in title. He's going to use his Infinity Stick, his self (Sword of Vashna, via monk), and his T3 Wind Duke to have his smoking create a pleasant air-element ambient mana source for the Spirits in hopes of luring them to come with him. If he can subtly add the blade's Charm chances to this he will, but only if it can be sneaky enough by his standards.

Zwei takes a luxuriant puff of his spacetime-cigarette and exhales upwards, using his control over Air (as channeled through the Blade) to unspool it into ribbons of curative, mana-rich smoke that twist and flow around the descending spirit-discs, working a little of the Blade's magic to put on a captivating display and hopefully land them firmly on the side of Not Starting Anything.

The result is both immediate and shockingly successful.

All of the Sky Discs register as being Charmed as well as (from what he can tell) having no current intention to start violence, instead seeming to be content to hang motionless above the sword-man as a sort of artsy secondary-roof-dome below the loading district's larger original version. The Canta and Cintho Discs, in particular, seem to have taken a rather deeper dose of Charm-fu than the others.

As a familiar jade shrine emerges from the depths of the stairwell pavilion, the moon-discs flip over, each showing an elaborately-carved expression of their respective elements that look somewhat like faces. The quartet begin to slowly rotate around the sun-displaying disc as the chancel moves out of the building, each humming at a different pitch. Not preparing to attack, Zwei thinks, but definitely readying themselves at the appearance of a new party.

The chancel, having apparently spotted the ancient spiritual art display of rotating reliefs around the swordsman, stops abruptly.
"U-um, Mister Zweirugi, a-are you alright...?"

"I think so, I'm not sure exactly though. Let's see..." Zweirugi exhales again and motions for the chancel to come over and then the kids, trying to signal to his newfound faces that these kids and shrine are allies. He'll vocally tell the kids to not disturb them as his second hand smoke that isn't instantly pulled in clouds the rest of his companions.

After taking a moment to affirm that the Sky Discs aren't going to murder the kids the moment he lets up, he'll lead the group as a whole onward, not staying too far ahead this time.

The group, which some might consider 'motley', sets off out of the loading district and into the huge tunnel beyond, the painted sky in the alcove-walls now taken on the hues of early evening. Distant rattling and clattering suggest that more of those cart-spirits (maybe carriage-spirits? Other wheeled conveyance-spirits?) are present in the area, although apparently not in the immediate vicinity.

There are a couple of options available to him. He could backtrack through that tiered gallery-city area to the city-area he entered from (and the ventilation shaft leading to the outside world), although that might end up leading to confrontations with those odd mask-spirits, whatever other things are present in the area, and that swarm of dark-balls that bubbled out of that... other... city-area after him.
He could, on the other hand, carry on down the tunnel to parts unknown in the hopes of finding another way out there. Given this place's condition, however, there'd be no guarantee it'd have less in the way of spiritual presence, and might very well lead to that darkened city-cavern with everything it contained.

Zweirugi curses under his breath. "The Devil you know, eh? . . ."

He turns to the kids and clouds, "alright you lot, does anyone have a way to find a path out of here that's safe and isn't the way we came? There's some uh, unpleasant shit back that way and I'm not too keen on bringing you kids back past it."

Awkward shuffling ensues as the children begin whispering to one another.

"We could go back the way we came."
"Shut up, Junkhouse. If he found the talismans, we'd get into trouble..."
"We're already in trouble. They had to send a sword-spirit after us!"
"I do not think it would be wise to explore dangerous areas we haven't warded."
"Th...they're right, we need to stick to the safest route."
"And now you're against me, too, Curro? Father will hear of this."
"Stop fightiiiiiiiiiiiing!"

As Ferroc begins arguing with a box and the small figure of Bellis begins agitatedly fumbling about trying to stop them, the chain-wearing Lucern steps back towards the sword-man swordsman.
"We should probably head back the way we got in. We... took some powerful warding talismans from the academy before we left to come down here. They helped keep the spirits away, but they were... more powerful than we thought they'd be. And this place is a lot... bigger than we expected. But we managed to get to the place at the end of this tunnel with them."
He points off into the gloom, towards the end of the tunnel Zwei didn't enter through when he first came here.

[Modrageball]

Zweirugi nods to the kid, taking another drag to keep the assembled spirits happy.

"Okay, good work kids. We'll head that way."

He heeds the Lucern's advice.

Cigarette puffed and mind made up, Zwei cuts off the argument between the other children by striding forth into the gloom towards the unknown (to him, at least) section of the city at the other end of the tunnel.
The distant sounds of rattling and clattering from spirit-carts fade away into echoes behind him as he makes his way down the cavernous underground road, illuminated both by huge hanging alabaster lanterns in various states of brightness and, to a lesser extent, the artificial 'sunlight' coming from the sunset-painted alcoves providing false vistas into a painted countryside. The place might be ancient, but this particular area seems to be holding together fairly well.

The tunnel continues straight for a while- a trivial distance that could be crossed in moments by Zwei, but one that takes the children (with their comparatively lower Levels) longer to traverse. With the exception of the Chancel, of course. He's pretty sure it has to be at least a couple of whole level brackets above the kids, despite being piloted by one of them.
The relatively peaceful trip comes to a somewhat odd end as the group reaches the far exit, opening out into a great, three-tiered circular cavern bordered by a multitude of buildings, stairways and roads, much like the previous 'inner city' he encountered at the other end of the tunnel all those... hours.... ago, topped by a familiarly well-made but false painted sky in sunset hues. The lowest level of this one contains a grassy, sculpted park with large flowerbeds surrounding a bandstand, with what must have once been shops, restaurants and other such businesses packed at the edges. Besides the roads and stairways leading up to the other tiers of the place, another exit in the form of another huge tunnel entrance is present. This one, however, has a barricade of sorts blocking access to it, with what appear to be warning signs attached. The thing is in oddly good shape despite its presumed age.

The oddity presents itself in the form of the various Sky Discs following Zwei abruptly stopping, as if impacting an invisible wall beyond the tunnel's mouth. A slightly more careful look around the place reveals a few other spirits, mostly those clouds of masks and one or two carts, pressed against more invisible barriers around the area.

"Well, looks like those warding talismans are still going strong. You kids want to retrieve them as we go and bring them with us?" He gestures to the kids, as they're the expert source on spirit magic here.

He likewise, will toss a fresh Infinity Stick cigarette at the spirit discs to somewhat reward them. He will use the following abilities in conjunction to have the Cigarette light itself after they make some distance.

Time-Split Cut- (Technique Ability, Kensei) Possessor may use 'Time-Split Cut' in conjunction with a 'Melee Attack' action if possessor has a Sword equipped, a Sword Arts spell is cast as part of said action, and no other technique is used. Said action is delayed one round.
Can Light Cigarettes With a Sword- (Passive Ability, Kensei) If possessor is wielding a Sword, possessor's 'Melee Attack' actions may involve the use of a Consumable whose name includes 'Cigarette' or 'Cigar' that only targets possessor

"Uh, we... could," Lucern begins, "but that'd mean those other spirits would be able to get near us. I mean," he hurridly adds, "I don't think they'd be a match for you, Mr. Zweiruigi, but I thought you'd want to know."

On the one hand, this means that he could probably get the kids back up the way they came without having to worry about spirits.
On the other, whatever warding-aura those talismans are radiating is also preventing his new collection of spiritual golem-things from being able to follow him out.

Zwei lights up another Infinity Stick and sends the smoke (and the blade's charm-influence) spiralling out towards them!
They seem pleased? He thinks? It's a little hard to gauge those carved faces. He's pretty sure the Arden-disc has now joined the 'really truly heavily charmed' gang along with the Canta and Cintho ones, though.

Zweirugi prioritizes the kids and already left a cig for the discs to play with while they get some more distance.

"Gather them up, I know I'm in for a reckoning when we get to the surface or school either way, but my job here isn't to survive."
His gaze narrows as he points his blade towards the exit, "I'm getting you kids back to Tristan alive. Let's make quick work of this and keep walking, hopefully free of more of this spiritual shit."

Just to clarify, as there's a bit of confusion there : Is he having the kids pick up the talismans here (thus removing the warding-bubble around each in turn, letting the spirits through), leaving the talismans where they are and getting the kids out (and leaving the Sky Discs he's charmed and maybe-something-more behind), sending the kids on ahead and having one remove talismans with him as bringing up the rear, or some combination of or alternate approach to the above?

((Save kids -> Leave talismans and Discs and all the other flak here.))

With the talismans left in place, Zwei finds the trip onward laughably simple. It would seem that the paper tags hold considerable power within them, something that becomes more evident in areas of the ancient city where larger number of spirits have clustered. On the group's journey they find familiar clouds of masks, floating stone discs and clattering, animate carts as well as hazy figures of choking fog and foul air, worn vases belching dust, glowing balls of eerily-laughing light and patches of nonpresence that echo with menacing footfalls, all variously blocked, trapped or bounced by or from invisible barriers radiating a few metres from each talisman's position.

The children (led by the considerably-faster Curro in the flying jade box) trace a route up the tiered, circular series of galleries that may have once been a commercial hub for the more residential parts of the undercity, taking a turn at a structure collapsed to rubble and into a wide, short tunnel that opens out into a huge, variably-lit cavern filled with flat-roofed buildings. It looks much like the other (presumably) residential cavern-areas Zwei entered on his way into the old city, layout-wise, albeit in worse repair than the other lit district. Wide cracks spread across the painted blue sky, the light issuing from it considerably dimmed along the damaged paths. It looks rather like some sort of unhealthy web of veins criss-crossing the ceiling, in a way. The visibility is rather poor, too- not only due to the varying levels of light, but because the place is positively saturated with dust. Thick, heavy particles hang in the air, lazily eddying and flowing around the group as they pass.
Zwei notes that a thick layer has somehow accumulated atop and around the barrier-fields generated by the talismans. Perhaps it isn't all mundane, after all.

Curro weaves his way through long-dead streets, past open doors and broken windows, dusty plazas and barren parks, and through a large, flat paved area surrounding a larger building- perhaps at one time a school, or some other civic structure- to a place where the cavern walls have crumbled into piles of stone and gravel. One such set of slopes leads up to a large hole from which dust billows and swirls at a considerable rate.

"This... this is where we came in," Lucern explains, catching his breath. "There was an old... tower or something that had been uncovered after a landslide at the chasm's edge. It had all these... shafts that led down into here."

Zweirugi grumbles and figuring he's finally far enough from those masks, will light up another cigarette.

"All right then, lets get us out of this spiritual hellhole before I find out I've already reincarnated as a suit of armor trying to save the world. Lucern, back on the box." He motions for the larger kid to get back to his surfing position while he starts unceremoniously using his three arms to grab the rest of the kids.

Using his rage-fueled wings alongside the Jade box's maneuverability, they will attempt to ascend the shafts as best they can. Zweirugi draws deep in the infinity stick to try to remain vigilant towards any dangers that could develop.

I suppose it's time to start working on Nischwert's apology if it comes to that.

Lucern clambers back atop the floating chancel as the sword-man swordsman gathers up the rest of the group in his abundance of arms.
The shaft leading back out is relatively narrow, requiring some manoeuvring from Zwei (and a somwhat slower ascent from the jade box in order to prevent its perched passenger from getting scraped against the walls) to get through, but proves to contain nothing more hazardous than darkness and stone dust, the former diminishing as the group continues to ascend into a shaft of golden sunlight spilling in from above.

A few moments later, Zwei finds himself in a rubble-strewn, decrepit stone chamber with large, talisman-chained gratings leading off down into (presumably) other parts of the city below. Ahead of him, what was once a thick wall and equally secure stone door lies in ruins, torn away to reveal a breathtaking view of the Clavia Chasm and the city itself suspended within and atop it, gilded by the warm sunlight of early evening streaming in from over the far cliff-edge.

Zwei's communication talisman from Tristan crackles and begins emitting a soft, regular chiming noise.

Zweirugi spits out his cigarette, it immolating to ash before even touching the ground. He picks out the talisman from his bandoleer and holds it up next to his face like some sort of phone again.

"Tristan, you better come in, I've recovered the kids. We're waiting at-" He turns to the kids and points at the group, "You know what? I've no idea where we are, one of you runts come here and help me talk with Tristan so he can find us. Maybe I can turn up the volume on this."

The chiming, ringing tone abruptly stops, replaced by a rustling, rattling noise.
"Mr... Mr. Zweirugi? Is that you?" Tristan's voice tinnily filters from the talisman. "Oh, thank goodness! When we... ah... lost contact, I feared the worst! I suppose the Old City's wards must have still been... ah... powerful enough to block the connection. Are the children safe? Are they hurt? What happened to Master Molen?"

The mini-tamer in question, heavily-booted feet kicking up clouds of dust in his wake, approaches.
"Would that be Instructor Doce? I would thank him for sending you to our rescue. By your leave, I shall strengthen the connection."
The boy raises a hand and traces a swift, glowing symbol in the air. The talisman responds by flaring brighter in Zwei's hand.

"Master Molen?" The voice of Tristan is now far clearer and less tinny, as if the man were standing directly next to the group. "You're safe? Your welfare talisman said you'd been... ah... turned to stone!"

"An action I took myself to prevent any harm from coming to me," Molen replies. "But not something I would have been able to maintain forever. For sending this sword-spirit to my rescue, the both of you have my thanks, and the thanks of House Gladia. My father shall see to it that rewards will be bestowed appropriately."

"I am... so very, very glad to hear you are safe and well, Master Molen. What... ah... of the others? Where are you?"

"They all seem to be well, although I cannot vouch for the health of Curro due to his station within a Chancel. We are presently standing within a ruin revealed after a landslide to the south-east of the city, at the edge of the Clavia Chasm."

That draws a considerable pause from Tristan.
"...it would seem I will need to... ah... be filled in on the details later. The main concern right now is to get all of you back into the Academy safely, but things have become... ah... complicated." Zwei hears a shaky breath being taken from the other end. "Anything brought back from the Old City to Clavia by students of the Academy will, of course, have to be quarantined and... ah... examined fully."
This prompts the start of a spluttering objection from Ferroc, but the boy is swiftly cut off by Tristan's continued and suddenly-stern speech.
"I am not about to go into the subject of punishments and rules at this present time, even if you all did commit such a flagrant breach of them. Neither am I going to lecture you all at this point about the considerable amount of worry you have caused the faculty staff. Truth be told, the... ah... methods that were used in investigating this whole situation has led to some very... unusual revelations that could prevent the worst verdicts from being handed down, especially if you all come forward and explain exactly what happened and how."
The teacher's voice seems to deflate somewhat.
"I'm rather afraid things have become a bit of a complicated tangle over here, Mr. Zweirugi. My first priority is the safety of the children, but I cannot in good conscience have you bring them back into the Academy yourself while a full... ah... investigation is going on. The Spiritual Defense Force have gotten involved, Magister Pacel Clavis himself has gotten involved, and I fear if you were to return you would, at the very least, be... ah... apprehended for questioning in a potentially very disagreeable manner. I, myself, am technically under... ah... house arrest along with the majority of the faculty while this all goes on. I can only apologise. I do have one or two ideas as to how to proceed, from here, but... ah... not all of them would sit well with me."

The children begin giving each other worried looks. At least, Zwei thinks that's what's going on, given the concealing ribbon-veils and general body language of the situation.

"A few questions Tristan." Zweirugi says, as a smile very, very, slowly creeps across his face. "I think I can help here if you don't see any faults in this."

"I will bring the children as close as the academy grounds, as likely any closer will spring the wards I presume? From there I hope they could manage to get the rest of the way into the building. I would like to propose a minor ruse however, to absolve them of this mess."

He turns to the group as he speaks, his face stern. "A convenient lie becomes an unfathomable tale becomes a fortunate truth becomes a passing legend. I will release the kids only after confiscating ALL gathered and pilfered objects from this Old Clavia, random articles that would imply struggle, maybe a hood here and a shoe there. I will singe some articles of clothing to further this ruse. After making sure they cross back into the building, I will make a showy display of my talents as though something had occurred. The most-nosy faculty will then quickly come to find that the kids managed to escape, my presence gone, and that they are in possession of a most mysterious weapon not of this world. I'm sure there's no punishment that would be rendered by being victims and unexpected heroes of a rampant supposed sword-spirit from another world meddling in day-to-day activities who's loudly-proclaimed identity doesn't match anything on the record of individuals from Nexus."

With a small laugh, "And if you would do me the favor, the sword I leave I'd like to make back into the hands of that other sword-wielding teacher, we'll consider it a trade. It might even help him recover."

The talisman falls silent as Tristan mulls over Zwei's proposal.

"While your offer to... ah... take the fall is admirable, I would rather you didn't do anything to mark yourself as a potential... ah... enemy of the Houses. Perhaps I should... perhaps I should be a little more forthcoming with the details, as I suppose most of the Academy knows by now."
The teacher takes a deep breath.
"While they are certainly going to face... ah... punishment, I believe I can confidently state that expulsion is off the table for the children. Especially if certain items from the Old City were to not be in their possession when they come back."

This statement garners a mixed chorus of sighs of relief and groans.

"From what I have been... ah... able to gather, the blame for this series of events is chiefly going to fall on Sal Bonita, the now... ah... ex-Head of Student Welfare. It was to him all reports I made of the missing group had to be given, and it would seem he was involved in an... ah... especially unpleasant scheme of some sort. The talismans regarding the childrens' whereabouts and status were hidden in his desk, after all, and after your... ah... spirited trip through the Academy drew the attention of the House and Magister Pacel, it was found that his chambers held a number of illegally-patterned shikigami modelled after the missing students--"

"He was making fake copies of us?!" Lucern, suddenly next to the swordsman and swords(?)tamer, exclaims.

"Master Lucern? It's good to hear you're... ah... safe, too. From what I have been able to gather through the... ah... rumour mill, yes. I could not possibly guess as to what he was intending to use them for, but nothing that comes to mind could possibly be good. In addition... " Tristan pauses, then begins to speak with deliberate care. "...it is important that you understand that I am not pointing any... ah... fingers here, or assigning any blame, but do the titles 'Architecture and Infrastructure of the Cities Below' and 'Spirits of the Undercities' mean anything to any of you?"

An uncomfortable, fidgeting silence descends on the part of the assembled children.

"...I was afraid of that. Ms. Carta, our Head Librarian, mentioned that those books had been... ah... removed from the restricted section some time ago and gone missing. With those, one could infer where the old ventilation shafts to the Old City were, along with the... ah... more unusual spirits that might reside within. I can understand the temptation--"

"It's because you teachers won't let us get more spirits!" Ferroc erupts from behind Zwei, storming over to the growing group. "All the older students get to have as many as they like, and as rare as they like, and we only get to have one, and besides the books were just sitting there in that classroom--"

"Master Ferroc." The teacher's tone is stern once more. "I would suggest you save the explanation, in full, for when you return to the Academy. As it presently stands, I sincerely doubt you removed them from the restricted section yourself, given it is only open to the Heads and above. While I have no basis for saying so, I currently agree with the sentiment among the staff that Mr. Bonita took the books himself and left them where ambitious students might find them."
His voice deflates again.
"The current sentiment is that Mr. Bonita is chiefly to blame for everything, and someone connected to the academy called in a... ah... violently overzealous mercenary to uncover the truth. Thankfully, nobody was killed in the... ah... ensuing chaos, although the damage is significant. As such, I believe it would be best, Mister Zweirugi, if you were to confiscate anything they may have found in the Old City, bring the children as far as the Jade Gate and... ah... leave with all due haste before anyone from the House or Spiritual Defense Force catches on."

Ferroc starts spluttering. "But I... but that.... I caught that Dolor fair and square! It's mine! I'll have you out of a job if you have it taken from--"
The boy is immediately silenced by Lucern punching him square in the veils.
"If it wasn't for him, if he didn't get Mr. Zweirugi to come and save us, we'd still be down there and probably be dead in a couple more days, you idiot!"

"Stop fightiiiiiiiiing"

Tristan gives a weak laugh. "I'm afraid I may not be under employment for much longer, regardless. I'm sure the... ah... investigation will turn up who it was that called in Mister Zweirugi to start with. So long as you are all safe, however, it is a price I'm... ah... willing to pay. And don't worry, Mister Zweiruigi, I'll be sure you receive payment for what you've done today."

"Very well. Tristan, are you aware of Sal's current whereabouts? I may follow up on that later to make sure the kids aren't in any further harm. Maybe send him some divinatory postage."

Regardless of answer, Zweirugi will bid Tristan well and end the call. He turns to the kids as he lights a cigarette.

"Okay brats. I'm going to cut a deal with you, since I'm a sword and all. I'll give you collectively, a momento from my world that'll help you tame powerful stuff later in your schooling, but only if you honestly make my job easy and give me all your contraband now. I've got a fork with a keen twang that will make sure no one's lying, and killing one of you a few times and bringing you back to life is a possible reflex. Capiche? I'll walk you guys the rest of the way."

He pauses to consider as presumably, they start emptying pockets.

"Oh, and also, I'm going to need one of you all to very specifically help me help Tristan out. And return this paper spirit thingy to him." He holds out the talisman.

Zweirugi isn't Vashna, nor Draconics, but Zweirugi does have a thorough grasp of magic and now a motive. While they get the items, he will use Enchanter and Wizard to put a basic enchantment onto the talisman. Since he doesn't have a good spell for this, he will use up his last remaining Wish on the sword to duplicate a Luck effect to the owner (Tristan). Finally, he will try to disguise this. He's banking that no one in this present group is a Deity, so he's going to use Idol of War in conjunction with Hallucinatory Nowhere-Body to hide the source of himself through Void as a minor deific blessing hidden "Nowhere". He will spend a small amount of his XP on this to tie it to himself to try to get both of these abilities to work here.

With that done, or at least after earning a "There was an attempt" sticker, he will turn back to the kids and examine what they've coughed up and eye them over to make sure there's nothing their holding back.

Lucern shifts his head to presumably face in Zwei's direction once again. "Don't worry, Instructor Doce! I'll let my father know what you both did for us! They won't dare fire you for it!"

"I, too, shall ensure my parents are informed of your rescue," Molen states. "Your efforts shall not go unrewarded."

"M-me tooo!"
A chorus of assent and support rises from all except the still-floored Ferroc.

"That's... ah... that's very kind of you all, but I couldn't possibly ask you to use your influence in such a--"

"You didn't ask us anything, Instructor Doce," Lucern replies, matter-of-factly. "We're choosing to do this by ourselves, because it's only right. Nobody else was coming to save us."

"Well, that's... well." Tristan sounds somewhat embarrassed. "As for Mister Bonita, I believe he has been taken into... ah... custody while the investigation goes over his chambers. I... ah... can't imagine it going well for him. Such acts of treason against the Houses rarely end in anything but execution, or worse."

Zwei bids goodbye to the nervous teacher, and makes his offer/threat. The children, for the most part, don't seem to be taking the killing part entirely seriously (with Ferroc starting to utter a rejoiner before Lucern kicks him again) but begin to unload their various articles of contraband with varying levels of enthusiam. Ferroc, again, is the issue here, having to have a key forcibly ripped out of his hands by Lucern and Molen teaming up.

Zwei ends up receiving:

Spiritually-Active Book of Ancient Seireian Fairytales- (Weapon, Book, Light & Darkness, 100,000,000 Gold) +100,000 MIN, +100,000 SPI, +1,000,000 MP as a non-stacking bonus, Wielder's actions involving the casting of Spirit Magic costs 200,000 less MP, Wielder may spend an action to replicate the ability of a Spirit below Level 70 that is also below wielder's Level, Wielder may spend an action to summon up to 10 Spirits from the Enemy List that are below Level 70 and normally fightable for drops, Max 30 summoned, with said summons having a 50% chance of being uncontrolled unless wielder possesses the abilities 'Shrine Maiden' and 'Binder', Wielder must be Level 40 or greater

Purified, Spiritually-Sealed Prayer-Blade- (Weapon, Sword, Light, 60,000,000 Gold) +60,000 STR, +60,000 SPI, +60,000 Melee Attack, +60,000 Magical Attack, Wielder's 'Melee Attack' and 'Melee Overdrive' actions may use Spirit as their Prime Attribute, Wielder's 'Melee Attack' bonus capping may be based on Spirit instead of Strength, Wielder's actions involving the casting of Spirit Magic cost 60,000 less MP, 100% Inflicts Awestruck: Sealed, this item may not gain the subtype Spirit

Spirit-Capturing Key (Dolor)- (Consumable, Summoning Stone, Unlimited Charges, Darkness, 5,000,000 Gold) Summons 1 Dolor, max 1 summoned, user may spend a charge of this item to unsummon this summon, summons summoned through this item that are unsummoned retain status effects, buffs, debuffs and HP and MP values at their point of being unsummoned, if a summon summoned through this item is killed or counts as dead for the purposes of victory conditions, this item is rendered inactive until the summon is cured, resurrected, or no longer counts as dead for the purposes of victory conditions.

18 Ancient Adyterran Apple- (Consumable, Food, 1 Charge, Light & Earth, 24,000,000 Gold) +24,000 SPI, +480,000 MP, does not stack

Lesser Afa Vase (Spirit, Level 12) (Stats coming later)



The jade shrine-box floats in place.
"I'm going to need some-- ghk --some help when I get out of this thing," Curro's voice states from within.

The shrine glows, forming a ball of spiritual energy beneath it that drifts to the dusty ground. The ball quickly grows in size and elongates, growing sharper and more defined with each moment until it finally coalesces into the form of another small, robed figure, this one with a bloodstained robe and a leg that is decidedly not pointing in a direction any leg rightly should.

Zwei gets:

Ancient Seireian Chancel: Jade Canticle- (Transformation, Chancel, Earth & Wood & Life, 280,000,000 Gold)
Level 65
(Stats to come later)

His fork still helping the kids make sure they got everything, Zweirugi takes a break from throwing his enchanter from Tristan when Curro hops out and heads over, cracking his knuckles.

"Chin-up kid, we'll make a whole man out of you." He pulls his arms back as cosmic void starts to envelop each of his three fists. He then lunges forward and proceeds to brutally punch Curro's leg back to functional.

--------------------------------------------

*Doctor Leon Kindler's Undying Arm- (Passive Ability, Healer) Possessor gains +100,000 Melee Attack and +100,000 Magical Attack for purposes of actions that are non-offensive and Heal, Possessor's 'Melee Attack' and 'Attack with Finesse' actions may gain 'Heals', Possessor's 'Melee Attack' and 'Attack with Finesse' actions may cure Wounded, Possessor's 'Melee Attack' and 'Attack with Finesse' actions may resurrect targets killed by sources below Level 60, Possessor gains 1 weapon slot, This ability may not be destroyed by sources below Level 100
Cosmic Doctor Fist- (Spell, Healer Magic, Astral, 30,000 MP, 15,000,000 Gold) +15,000 Melee Attack, May Heal, May cure any one minor or moderate negative status effect, May cure any one debuff with a source below Level 70, Caster must be Level 35 or greater

Zwei looks over the recumbent form of Curro and runs his less-than-practiced medical eye over the patient. In his esteemed (complete lack of) medical opinion, that's definitely a broken leg.

Fortunately, he has a rather more-than-practiced medical arm to deal with matters such as this. Practiced enough, it seems, to redivert Zwei's punches to other parts of the leg than he was previously targeting and then snap the entire limb back into place afterwards with a flare of healing energy.
In the space of time it takes for Curro to give a yelp of pain, the limb has been moved, set and restored to wholeness and functionality!

The fork tentatively prods the mini-tamers. Muttering, Ferroc produces another key from his person.
Looks like it's another:

Spirit-Capturing Key (Dolor)- (Consumable, Summoning Stone, Unlimited Charges, Darkness, 5,000,000 Gold) Summons 1 Dolor, max 1 summoned, user may spend a charge of this item to unsummon this summon, summons summoned through this item that are unsummoned retain status effects, buffs, debuffs and HP and MP values at their point of being unsummoned, if a summon summoned through this item is killed or counts as dead for the purposes of victory conditions, this item is rendered inactive until the summon is cured, resurrected, or no longer counts as dead for the purposes of victory conditions.

Lucern responds to this by getting Ferroc into a headlock and angrily demanding he stop trying to make the person who rescued them all any more annoyed and to give up anything else he might be hiding, to which the other mini-tamer hotly responds that he'd already given everything he has, unless the sword-spirit-thing really wants an old apple core.

"Is it a magic apple core?"

Zweirugi has a bit of a chuckle. He'll put his swords back and nod to the kids as he gathers the objects.

"All right, let's make for the academy. I would hate to fail this evacuation at this late a juncture."

The items are gathered and the Chancel precariously stacked atop the other, deactivated one. It's a bit awkward given they're both roughly three feet tall, wide and deep and have those weird roof-ish tops, but Zwei manages to get them somewhat-balanced.

The city of bridges and layers bathes in the evening sunlight flowing into the chasm, the topmost, walled off layer towering over the rest of the city atop its great pillars and acting much like a parasol for entire districts beneath it. It looks like the main entrance to Clavia, at least as far as Zwei can tell from his position on the crumbling edge of the cliff, is a large bridge a decent walk away. Not the way he entered the place the first time, of course, given his short-cut. Not necessarily a method he can use again, either, given his current group of charges.